What effects did the Cold War have on the two great powers?

The Cold War had many effects on the two great powers of
the United States and the Soviet Union and those effects were different at different
points in the Cold War.  I will discuss what I see as the two main effects that the Cold
War had overall.

On the United States, I would argue that
the Cold War's main effect was a willingness to go against American values in foreign
policy.  The US was consistently willing to back dictators and other oppressive regimes
in the "Third World" so long as those regimes were anti-communist.  Some examples
include the apartheid government of South Africa, military dictatorships in South Korea
and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.

For the Soviet
Union, the main effect was that the Cold War destroyed their country.  The pressure put
on the USSR, both military and political pressure, caused tensions to rise in the
country.  The Soviet government was forced to use its resources for military equipment
instead of for increasing its people's standard of living.  It was forced to be very
repressive for fear that openness would cause it to lose people to the West.  These
things made people more and more unhappy to the point that they exploded as the Cold War
came to a close.

These are, as I see it, the most important
effects that the Cold War had on each of the major powers.