Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?

[shadow]

But WW1 and WW2 were good ideas? Why did people think WW2 would be smart after the devastation of WW1? It didn't stop people like Hitler. It seems... lucky that our wars get more and more violent up until they could kill literally everyone, and then we stop there.

WW2 wasn't meant to 'stop people like Hitler' - it was meant to stop Hitler.

I know, I meant, the massive devastation and loss of human life demonstrated in WW1 didn't stop Hitler from engaging in WW2.

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The Cold War was very bloody. Proxy wars. Vietnam/ Korea/ Angola/ Central America/ Iran/ Cambodia. North Korea / South Korea is an example of those very real wars still being carried out.

Good point. So it was basically fought by little vassal states because the big powers were tired of their own countries being devastated?

It still begs the question, why didn't anyone bring nuclear weapons into these battles if they could end them so quickly? Or why haven't they yet... because obviously North/South Korea is currently developing on that front.

It's a common question I have a modern warfare - isn't it all a sort of mini-game of the real thing, since many countries have nuclear weapons and thus the capability to actually annihilate their opponents? Countries can't continue to seek military advantage when multiple nations already have so much military advantage that it would be, like has been pointed out, MAD to use it.