What were the successes/ failures of the Cold War for the United States.This is for a History exam and I don't know where to start.

I can see where you would be unsure about where to start
with this.  It is a big question.

I suppose that the
biggest success for the US was keeping communism from spreading to any areas of the
globe that were really vital to US interests.  Communism did not reach Western Europe,
for example, or the Middle East or Japan.  It did not have any success in Mexico.  These
are the places that were most important to the US.  Since this was one of the major US
goals in the Cold War, you would have to call that a
success.

There are a few things that you could call
failures.  You could say that the "loss" of China was a failure.  So were the Vietnam
War and the attempt to get Cuba back from Castro.  Another major failure, you can argue,
was the US's inability to convince various "Third World" countries to ally themselves
with the US.  This was particularly true of the Arab nations.  This failure to create
friends for the US was also a major failure and one that has outlived the Cold
War.