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Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 5:43 am
Disclaimer- I've studied very little history in my life; I never even learned anything about the World Wars in school. So correct me if I'm wrong about something 
What I'm curious about, maybe from someone who knows history better, why after World War 1 and 2 escalating so severely and nations being so ready to take up arms, the Cold War never actually got violent. It seems the stage was set for the Cold War to really be World War 3, given the fact that the world's major powers were involved and many smaller countries got tied up in it. Yet the world avoided repeating the 50,000,000 casualties of World War 2. What factors ended the large-scale violence between major powers that had been so prevalent in the first half of the century?
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 5:58 am
WW3 using nukes would have resulted in the extinction of the human race, we decided that wasn't a smart thing to do.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 6:04 am
(February 12, 2018 at 5:58 am)Succubus Wrote: WW3 using nukes would have resulted in the extinction of the human race, we decided that wasn't a smart thing to do.
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.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:09 am
(This post was last modified: February 12, 2018 at 7:11 am by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
(February 12, 2018 at 6:04 am)shadow Wrote: (February 12, 2018 at 5:58 am)Succubus Wrote: WW3 using nukes would have resulted in the extinction of the human race, we decided that wasn't a smart thing to do.
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.
WWI was a monumentally bad idea, essentially a war fought because of who had treaties with whom.
WW2 wasn't meant to 'stop people like Hitler' - it was meant to stop Hitler.
Succubus nailed it - MAD was what kept the Cold War from getting hot.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:11 am
(This post was last modified: February 12, 2018 at 7:13 am by Pat Mustard.)
(February 12, 2018 at 5:43 am)shadow Wrote: Disclaimer- I've studied very little history in my life; I never even learned anything about the World Wars in school. So correct me if I'm wrong about something
What I'm curious about, maybe from someone who knows history better, why after World War 1 and 2 escalating so severely and nations being so ready to take up arms, the Cold War never actually got violent. It seems the stage was set for the Cold War to really be World War 3, given the fact that the world's major powers were involved and many smaller countries got tied up in it. Yet the world avoided repeating the 50,000,000 casualties of World War 2. What factors ended the large-scale violence between major powers that had been so prevalent in the first half of the century?
Luck, pure and simple. A bear wandering onto a base nearly caused the US to start a nuclear exchange, and the only thing stopping the USSR from responding to Able Archer with saturation nuking was dodgy electronics leading to computers refusing the activation codes.
Edit: the cold war wasn't so bloodless in Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Chile, Angola, Congo (Kinshasha), Greece and many other countries the powers fought over with proxy armies.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:13 am
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.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:14 am
(February 12, 2018 at 7:13 am)chimp3 Wrote: 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.
Ninja'd me to it.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:17 am
(February 12, 2018 at 7:13 am)chimp3 Wrote: 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. I bled.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:29 am
Deaths by proxy war 6-7 million depending on sources.
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RE: Why didn't the Cold War get bloody?
February 12, 2018 at 7:30 am
(This post was last modified: February 12, 2018 at 7:40 am by shadow.)
(February 12, 2018 at 7:09 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: (February 12, 2018 at 6:04 am)shadow Wrote: 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.
(February 12, 2018 at 7:13 am)chimp3 Wrote: 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.
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