Why didn't the cold war turn into WW III?

Question

I know what the cold war was, I'm just wondering what happened (what actions were taken) to prevent WW III

Answer 1

Unfortunately, WWIII will be global suicide, therefore in answer to your question, as long as there's rational superpowers who believe in MAD, there will be no WW3 and it was THE reason the Cold War didn't escalate into a world war. By definition, the next world war wil be nuclear, how could it not. In a nuclear war there will be no winner. In a nuclear world, the only true enemy is war itself.

The next World War will involve a nuclear exchange, how could it not if both sides believe no price for victory will be too high. In the first 30 minutes, nearly a billion people will have been vaporised, mostly in the US, Russia, Europe, China and Japan. Another 1.5 billion will die shortly thereafter from radiation poisoning. The northern hemisphere will be plunged into prolonged agony and barbarity.

Eventually the nuclear winter will spread to the southern hemisphere and all plant life will die. You ask what country would be victorious, you are asking when will we commit global suicide. My answer is it won't happen soon because the larger superpowers are more rational than the rump states in the middle east.

While we hear talk of a nuclear-Iran or a confrontation with NorKor, little is said about the 2 bulls in the glass shop. The arsenals of Russia and the US are enough to destroy a million Hiroshimas. But there are fewer than 3000 cities on the Earth with populations of 100,000 or more. You cannot find anything like a million Hiroshimas to obliterate. Prime military and industrial targets that are far from cities are comparatively rare. Our biggest threat is from an accidental launch by the Russians.

At the point of global suicide, it doesn't matter who is on what side....where you go to hide, or how long you can survive. In a nuclear age like i said before, the only true enemy is war itself.

Answer 2

Kennedy's foreign policy was aggressively anti Communist. He attempted to remove Castro from power in Cuba through the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He also sent troops to Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese army against the Communist forces in the North of the country. Kennedy did not recognise China as a legitimate power, the USA did not do so until the Nixon administration. Kennedy was prepared to compromise, however. After threatening to invade Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis Kennedy entered negotiations with Soviet leader Khrushchev and agreed to decomission missiles in Turkey and Italy in return for the removal of the Soviet missiles. He thus prevented the Cold War from becoming a hot war.

Answer 3

There may not have been a true WWIII in the sense of US vs USSR but both countries played out the cold war all throughout the last half of the 20th century by backing certain sides in a political situation. Cuba, Korea, Vietnam and SE Asia, Afghanistan, post-colonial Africa and the Middle East are all good examples.

Answer 4

Both sides pushed pretty close. Soviet memories of the losses in the Great Patriotic War made them a little skittish about charging into the Fulda Gap, and the Cuban missile crisis probably was a surprise to the Soviets, who couldn't understand why we'd mind having missiles on our doorstep, since neighborly threats are a routine part of European (and Asian) life, and that was the only point at which the US came close to stepping over the edge.

Answer 5

well the thing about the cold war was that all of the fighting was done in a kind of you hurt me then i will hurt you (with nuclear wepons, so i suppose it was more like kill). there were no up front casualties, beacuse the fighting was done with the governments trying to hide it from the people. There would never be any fighting in the cold war beacuse the people didn't know, so they couldn't condone it. i am no expert, just a sophmore so if you're doing this for a paper or something then i would reasearch it further

Answer 6

There was no world war III because both the president of the united states and kruschev or Russia knew that if they both bombed each other with nuclear weapons they would destroy the world. So they made a disarment traty. The us remove missles from turkey and russia remove its missles from cuba.

Answer 7

The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction -- or MAD -- allowed both sides to avoid direct conflict while still fomenting minor wars and conflicts in many countries around the world.

Answer 8

My opinion is because for the first time in civilized history, the US and Russia had weapons of mass destruction. Fortunately, our leaders realized the significance of this. What happened in Japan tempered everybody and no one wanted to see that kind of devastation again.

I think everybody starting marking boundaries that will still see the affect of today.

Answer 9

For the sake of the world there weren't any actions taken.
Hiroshima was a warning against pride. Hopefully it will continue to teach and warn world leaders.

Answer 10

Because "cooler heads" prevailed. Both sides,the US and Russia, had hundreds of nuclear weaons pointed at each other, and level headed people negotiated, reduced the numbers of these weapons, and had successfull peace talks. Unfortunately level headed Leaders seem to be in short supply in todays world.