Given that the Cold War started in large part due to Stalin completely and utterly bungling his hand (Stalin bungling foreign relations wasn't exactly unique to the start of the Cold War either), I have to give this to the US. That said, after Stalin died, the gap narrowed substantially and I'd say that in general the Soviets played their hand very well from then on. I'm not sure I'd hold either super power up as a shining example of competent foreign policy though. If anything, the diplomatic history of the Cold War is a study on how weaker powers can manipulate stronger powers to do what they want.
uhm.. curious. but you are saying that the soviet union. the largest nation on the earth by quite a stretch was lacking resources? which ones. just curious.
Coal and iron were probably the worst, but the USSR was disadvantaged across the board. Consider that the USSR had a similar overall resource endowment to the United States, which is less than half the surface area and much of the Soviet Union's resources were under the Siberian permafrost and far from sea lanes. All that means that much of the Soviet Union's mineral resources were not economically viable to exploit due to much higher extraction and transport costs. Additionally the USSR was poorer in a number of key resources like good coking coal, high quality iron ore and oil (the USSR only managed to export oil because it remained an overwhelmingly coal-based economy to the end, unlike the USA, which transitioned to oil for the majority of its energy needs due to it being a more efficient fuel).
And honestly, expecting a larger land area to be richer in resources is not something that matches reality, unless you have cheap fusion power and can melt bedrock and fraction off whatever resources you want for a reasonable price, but no-one can do that yet.
it was management of said resources
Well, that surely played a part in the Soviets hitting the wall when they did. I'd argue mismanagement and incorrect responses to the exhaustion of the resources in the European USSR was actually the main driving force behind Soviet collapse. But that the USSR was poorer in economically viable resources is just a fact.
fasquardon