stimated to have been $ 8 trillion, while nearly 100,000 Americans lost their lives in the Korean War < and Vietnam War <. Although the loss of life among Soviet soldiers is difficult to estimate, as a share of their gross national product the financial cost for the Soviet Union was far higher than that incurred by the United States.addition to the loss of life by uniformed soldiers, millions died in the superpowers 'proxy wars < around the globe, most notably in Southeast Asia <. Most of the proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War; interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, as well as refugee and displaced persons crises have declined sharply in the post-Cold War years.aftermath of Cold War conflict , however, is not always easily erased, as many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by Communist governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth and an increase in the number of liberal democracies <, while in other parts of the world independence was accompanied by state failure <.
