In our own time , during the Cold War , when we were so concerned about being in competition with the Soviet Union , very often we dealt with countries in Africa and in other parts of the world based more on how they stood in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union than how they stood in the struggle for their own people 's aspirations to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities .
During the Cold War , the Soviet Union was not our ally .