How Much Money Did the US Spend on the Cold War?

Everyone is aware of the simple fact that wars cost a great deal of money and the Cold War, although there was no actual fighting or gunfire, was no exception to this general rule.

To this day, the Cold War is one of the United States’ most expensive in terms of the cost for the period.

• The Cold War was very expensive in large part because, in order to keep any of the Eastern European countries from backing the Soviet Union, President Truman had to promise them all American aid.
• As such, the initial expense of the war could be said to include just over $17 billion dollars for the funding of the European Recovery Program (also known as the Marshall Plan). This figure on the money spent on the Marshall Plan can be found at Digital History.uh.edu and this staggering number would be far from the last expenditure the United States would see.
• In all, according to the Center for Defense Information, which provides information on military spending, the total cost of the Cold War was $13.1 Trillion dollars.

The bulk of this cost went towards military expenditures on the technological front, which have helped the United States stay on the forefront of weapons technology. However, for the war to cost the United States what it did and then come to such an abrupt end seemingly with no result, the American people were left with many questions as to whether or not the money that was spent on the war could have been better spent at home.