U.S.A. vs. U.S.S.R. on Ice - Final Victory of Cold War

The Cold War. That ridiculous tiff between the Capitalist world, led by the United States, and the Communist world, lead by the Soviet Union, over which financial system was better. Parts of the Cold War were downright violent, such as the Korean and Vietnam wars, and parts were nearly apocalyptic, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. But much of the Cold War was, in retrospect, ridiculous. The United States and the Soviet Union could never directly have an armed conflict as it could have easily lead to an all out nuclear exchange. So they did battle in other arenas, the most notable being the Space Race where America proved it's superiority to Russia by being the first to have a man play Golf on the moon. The 1972 Chess Championship proved capitalist superiority once again when the unstable American genius Bobby Fischer beat Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky. But the majority of Cold War battles too place during the Olympic Games. Here America spent millions in it's athletes so that they could beat athletes from the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and the other countries. Here the United States would see many Cold War victories from such athletes as Mark Spitz and Bruce Jenner, and also the humiliation of defeat at the hands of the 14 year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. It seemed as if the greatest battle of the Cold War was to take place on Russian soil when the Olympics were scheduled to be held in Moscow in 1980. But after an invasion by the Soviet Union of Afghanistan the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics. The Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics.

This left the 1980 Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York. Not a good prospect as the United States put all their gold medal efforts into the summer games. Perhaps there was a medal in figure skating, but otherwise it would be Russia dominating the medals. Thankfully there was at least one American athlete, speed skater Eric Heiden, who was bringing in the gold for the United States. An astounding five individual medals in every speed skating event he entered. Otherwise Americans were being shown up by the Russians and East Germans in their own country. There was little chance beyond Heiden for any other victory, and with the pending Summer Olympics boycott it would be ate least another four years before American athletes could compete in a game against the Iron Curtain countries. All seemed doomed for America who had come so far during the Cold War only now to see victory slip away. It would take a miracle for the United States to get another gold.

Well, if it was a miracle that the United States needed then perhaps God was a capitalist after all, because a miracle is exactly what happened. One of the least likely sports the United States could possibly win was for Ice Hockey. There were two good reasons. One was that all the good players were professional and ineligible to play in the Olympics. The other was the Soviet's team, a powerhouse that had won five gold medals out of the last six Olympics and had remained undefeated since 1964. In an exhibition game against the NHL All-Stars the Soviets crushed them 6-0. They were an unstoppable menace who were poised for victory in the only Winter Olympic sport that Americans gave a crap about.

And then there was the American team, a rag-tag group of college students too young and inexperienced to join the NHL. The Americans were expected to be eliminated from medal contention in the first rounds, and nearly were when the Swedish team was within 30 seconds of a 2-1 victory. The Americans pulled their goalie for a last desperate power play which paid off giving them a last second goal tying the game at 2-2. But the Americans faced Czechoslovakia in the next round, a team second only to the Russians. Beating the odds, the Americans pulled of an amazing 7-3 victory. The plucky American team won their next three games, advancing to the semifinals and facing the unstoppable Soviets. The Americans had faced this same Russian team before at an exhibition game in Madison Square Gardens where the Soviets wiped the floor with them in a 10-3 victory. They may have made it thus far, but there was no way the American team could possibly win.

But all of America was counting on this hockey team. Aside from Heiden Americans had failed to get the gold, not in figure skating, not in the bob sled and not in curling. We needed a victory if there was any hope on winning the Cold War. A decisive victory that could prove once and for all that capitalism was superior to communism. In the showdown the Soviets took the lead nine minutes into the game with the first goal. The Americans just barely kept pace with their own goal, this almost immediately followed by another Soviet goal. All seemed hopeless when the Americans tied the game up during a power play, hen two minutes later scored what would turn out to be the winning goal. As the game clock counted down to zero and the Soviets were unable to regain control of the puck and America was victorious in one of the most decisive battles of the Cold War. Of course this was not the final game. The Americans still had to face Finland for the gold medal. A bit anticlimactic but America did win the Gold.

And that is how America won the final battle of the Cold War. There was never an opportunity to face the Russians again. he boycott of both the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics kept America and Russia apart. Fischer had become too unstable to play chess in a tournament again and the space race was all but suspended when both the Americans and Soviets could no longer afford to send men beyond Earth's orbit. A symbolic Cold War battle was fought between boxers Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago, but that was just a movie. When the Soviets and Americans finally did meet again the Cold War was on it's last legs and neither seemed interested in fighting. When the Iron Curtain finally came down it was Ronald Reagan took the credit, but it would be a team of amateur hockey players who won the battle that ended the Cold War.