During the Cold War did the US trade with the Soviet Union?

[Jspur]

A friend and I were talking about the current situation with Russia and how China have manipulated the US economically through trade. I jokingly told my friend imagine if the Soviet Union had the same strategy economically with the US that China does through trade. My friend then asked did we trade with the Soviet Union back in the day. So that's the genesis of where this question came from. Can any of the older DUERs who were alive around that time answer the question?

[Crunchy Frog]

1. Yes.

[multigraincracker]

2. I was 13 back in Nov of 1962 and remember,

we almost traded missiles with them.

[Hekate]

3. I don't think so. It was a feature of the Iron Curtain for 45 years. And they were poor because...

… of their own damn government, could scarcely feed themselves, and produced shoddy goods.

On the other hand, in certain intellectual areas they excelled. Mathematics, chess, and so on. Science. Some fine writers emerged, but were persecuted, imprisoned, killed, or exiled.

[Jspur]

5. My friend was pointing out to me how the US should not trade with

countries who are enemies like they do right now with China because it creates a national security risk. That's why he wondered if the US traded with Soviet Union back in the day since they were the US' top enemy.

[Hekate]

7. When Nixon negotiated to open China for trade a lot of nonsense got printed in the US ...

…. about how communism was going to crumble because capitalism or something. I was young, but I realized the reason these comments made me so uneasy was because the writers were conflating capitalism with democracy itself, and that just was not true.

China has always had a merchant class, of big people and small. That came back. But never in the culture’s existence did they have a democratic system or a democratic philosophy to refer back to.

Joe Biden was right when he said that Xi is smart, Xi wants prosperity and power for his country, “but he doesn’t have a democratic bone in his body.” It is a different world-view altogether.

But capitalists in America seized the opportunity to make lots of money, to hire cheap labor, and so on. And politicians and economists thought that by tying countries together with trade agreements, that war would become less likely.

In the realm of national security, I’ve been really shocked at the outsourcing of the manufacture of military hardware components, including computer chips. When I think about it I still want to take someone by the lapels and scream, “What the hell were you thinking?!”

Can’t remember which old Russian it was who said, “A capitalist is a man who will sell you the rope with which you hang him.”

[Jspur]

9. I remember debating my International Relations teacher during my senior year of highschool

back in 2001 about how China will never become a democracy through trade. My teacher claimed that through the internet and trade that China would eventually collapse and go towards democracy like Russia did at the end of the Cold War. My response was that it's never going to happen, and that China will control the internet and restrict whatever information their citizens get. My teacher disagreed and here we are over 20 years later with no change but just a weakening of American national security dealing with China.

[raccoon]

14. Great post. And a lot of people think capitalism democracy. Nt

[Eugene]

12. Trade was small, but it happened.

The Soviet Union was a significant customer for U.S. grain. The U.S. embargo after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan had American farmers screaming. There was also the Pepsi for vodka deal in the detente era.

Soviet citizens wanted consumer goods, whether they were legal or illegal (like Levis).

[cemaphonic]

4. The US even bailed out the USSR agricultural sector in the 70s

Really nasty grain shortages in the early 70s, that the US alleviated (somewhat) by selling subsidized grain on credit.

[JI7]

6. Isn't there something about Pepsi or Coke being exchanged for some Russian Ministry or some other

thing .

[Haggard Celine]

8. We traded some things with them.

I remember when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, we used to see those humongous Russian grain ships coming into ports along the Mississippi coast. Saw some at the port of New Orleans as well.

I don’t know if trade with Russia was limited to certain items or not. I’m guessing it was. Russian ships used to dock in Gulfport, and we used to talk to them and buy drinks for them and they would reciprocate.

But that was in the 90s, and things were different by then. They seemed like very nice people, just as much as anyone else. It’s a shame they’re living in an awful dictatorship now. We could easily end up with one, too, if people don’t wake up.

[Sgent]

10. Not really

We didn't have an ongoing trade relationship with them, but we did have waxing and waning times of cultural exchanges and occasional food aid after Stalin's death. We did have trade relationships ongoing relationships with Yugoslavia though (remember Yugo's anyone?), and it wasn't prohibited, but business was very, very difficult. A relative did business there in the early 80s and every trip included two party members as minders-- one from Yugoslavia and one from the USSR who were with him at all times.

[unblock]

11. for the most part, no; at least, nothing like "free" trade.

the soviet union viewed many western goods as corrupting, so it was next to impossible to get things like blue jeans.

so most of the trade that took place was with commodities where they could erase any mention of western brands and such.

that said, stuff came through from the limited people who were able to travel (diplomatic families, e.g.) and the black market.

and of course, rich americans still found a way to get their beluga caviar, just as they found a way to smoke cuban cigars....

[Chainfire]

13. During the cold war

We certainly would have not bought a product marked: Made in the USSR. We knew who our friends were and who wanted to destroy us. If we bought foreign marked products, they were marked, "Made in Japan." At that time, our national leaders did not support, praise and trade with the people who wanted to bury us.

[denbot]

15. Yes, my buddy's dad was an IBM mainframe salesman, dealing with Russia.

At a dinner party during a Russian trip his mom jokingly asked who was the KGB agent? The gentleman sitting next to her smiled and said “I am”. It got a bit awkward for a moment because the Russians at the table knew he was telling the truth.

[Tomconroy]

16. I remember there was a big thing about the Russians buying wheat

In the 70s maybe. There www probably some trade. More as the years we on.

[werdna]

17. This might be useful

Take a look here: https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1959090200

[highplainsdem]

18. Yes.

[Vogon_Glory]

19. We sold them a lot of grain back then

Soviet-style agriculture did not produce big enough harvests to allow the Soviet Union to produce enough grain to feed itself. That was why they bought a lot of US grain back in the 2970’s and 1980’s.

That changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before Putin invaded Ukraine, both Russia and Ukraine were grain-EXPORTING countries.

[dumbcat]

20. Yes

Mostly we sent them food, as I remember.

[dalton99a]

21. And before that, what the U.S. gave Russia:

Months before the United States formally entered the war, it had already begun providing massive military and economic assistance to its Soviet ally through the Lend-Lease program.

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin raised a toast to the Lend-Lease program at the November 1943 Tehran conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.

"I want to tell you what, from the Russian point of view, the president and the United States have done for victory in this war," Stalin said. "The most important things in this war are the machines.... The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war."

Nikita Khrushchev offered the same opinion.

"If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war," he wrote in his memoirs. "One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me."

https://www.rferl.org/a/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html