The US wasn't almost $10 trillion in debt during the Cold War.

The US Dollar was the world's premier currency during the Cold War. This is slipping badly.

Sometimes History applies, sometimes not. The future is not necessarily a linear extension of the past. Things change.

During the cold war our forests still stood -- at least, in the Pacific Northwest -- and our oil fields were still full. Our giant aquifers still had a full charge, and the rivers ran free.

Now, most everything is used up, and a lot of what is left is mortgaged to the Japanese, the Chinese and the British and Dutch aristocracy.

Oh, and I forgot those coal and uranium and copper mines that no longer are productive.

Or, as Mark Twain said "History may not repeat itself but it does rhyme"