Legacies of Cold War Liberalism To promote democratic and egalitarian ideals today, we need to break with the anxieties that drove U.S. politics during the Cold War. President-elect John F. Kennedy with Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. on January 9, 1960 (Bettmann via Getty Images) If war is a force that gives us meaning, as Chris Hedges famously wrote, what purpose remains when the ultimate battle has been won? This question plagued many American intellectuals after the end of the Cold War, when the United States assumed an unrivaled geopolitical position. For some who had been in the ideological trenches far too long, it was impossible to let go. They were skeptical of the notion that challenges to the United States could be resolved through technocratic adjustments, and found it hard to believe that all would now be safe and well. For three decades, these figures have remained ready to sound the tocsin against new enemies on the horizon. That bellicose posture is one significant legacy of Cold War liberalismâa politics whose definition remains contested, even if the historical conditions that gave rise to it are clear.