183k views
2 votes
Why did the cold war never develop into a direct military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union

User Pomkine
by
8.2k points

1 Answer

1 vote

USSR and USA both knew that if they would engage in a full scale nuclear war, it would simply lead to annihilation of human life.

Such an event was termed as “MAD” or “Mutually Assured Destruction”

Both USSR & USA didn’t want this catastrophe to happen. So they didn’t allow it to turn it into a ‘hot war.’

But both superpowers participated in proxy wars like in Vietnam, Korea & Afghanistan to prove their might. In these wars they were not engaged directly but were helping local rebels or the ruling body with weapons and technical assistance.

The Vietnam & the Korean wars were won by the USSR backed side. While USA backed mujahedin fighters managed to win over Soviet backed Afghan government in Afghanistan.

User Lievno
by
8.4k points

No related questions found

Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.