Georgi Malenkov's Argument For The Demise Of America

Georgi Malenkov, the Soviet premier in 1954 had cast doubt on the thesis that one side must prevail in a nuclear war and had cautioned that such a situation could mean the very end of civilization. It is, however, ironic that his call for restrain very much became the reason for his downfall, as he was portrayed as weak and unreliable on national security, yet as time would prove, both the nations of USA and USSR ultimately came to the conclusion that it was prudent for the betterment of the people on both sides to spend the precious resources on the betterment of their people, rather than pursuing an un-ending arms-race.
Khrushchev, seeing the demise of Malenkov faithfully pursued the agenda of nuclear supremacy over America and in 1962

both the countries came on the verge of nuclear holocaust. Had it not been the realization on part of Khrushchev that he was gambling the very existence of his nation, there was nothing stopping mushroom clouds engulfing the entire world. Yet after nearly escaping the spectre of a nuclear war, the Soviet Union and the United States continued their deadly race towards making bigger and scarier yields of nuclear weapons and their delivery methods. Both sides were focused on achieving nuclear ascendency and winning should the cold war turn hot. Billions of dollars and rubles were thus spent by both countries in order to surpass each other in the domain of military spending. It was finally, the realization on part of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev that the Soviet Union could not compete with the United States in arms spending and hence started the era of détente and strategic arms limitations treaties.
Thus détente gave both the nations the relative peace of mind in terms of fear from an imminent nuclear calamity and save tremendous financial resources to be diverted towards nuclear weapons and their launch modes. It was only after Soviet Union’s intervention in Afghanistan, did détente suffered discontinuity and with the arrival of Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, who saw détente as a ploy from the Soviets to strengthen their military, while maintaining a lull period, there was another shift towards the idea of maintaining both conventional and nuclear superiority over the USSR. The Star Wars concept by Reagan or the SDI was a major step in that direction. However, with Gorbachev’s arrival, Regan realized that after all there was one person with whom he could deal with. Gorbachev having been picked by Brezhnev himself followed his mentor’s vision and endeavoured to get back to the table with the US leadership and hence the world finally saw that with the continued process of Summitry and a belief in détente finally brought both nations from a destructive race towards nuclear annihilation and the Cold War amicably came to an end. To the detractors, who would say that the inherent economic weakness of the Soviet state became the reason of the collapse, I would posit that no state crumbles only because of the economic difficulties. I believe that it was Gorbachev’s desire to give varied degree of freedom and liberty to all the states forming the USSR, however his reforms of perestroika and glasnost were a little too fast for the states and the lack of ruthlessness on part of Gorbachev also played a crucial part in the dismemberment of the USSR. Therefore, any effort to link détente and Gorbachev’s willingness to engage with Ronald Reagan in a sustained progress of Summitry to restart détente, with the collapse of the Soviet Union would be a little too far-fetched an idea. Hence Pakistan and India both should not worry that a peaceful détente between the two states could lead one of them to its dismemberment is too simplistic a notion in the over-all paradigm of functioning of states and their inherent strengths and weaknesses.