DrakBibliophile wrote:I accept that I may have misunderstood your point, but I'll point out that while the "Cold War" didn't turn hot in Europe, there were plenty of "proxy" wars between the two sides.
True. But none of them blew up into a Big War that everyone was expecting because of nuclear deterrence.
India and Pakistan tends to get pointed at how nukes deter war. Lot of border fighting and vitriol between the two... which suddenly quieted down when both sides got nukes.
Of course, nuclear deterrence tends to be predicated on the assumption that the leadership of all sides involved (that hold nukes) are sane.