What was the cold war like?

Question: What was the cold war like!?

Only answer if you were alive during the cold war and were a soldier for the russian or american side please!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The two superpowers knew from the experience of two world wars that even a conventional war between them would be ruinous!. They fought proxy wars in the third world such as Vietnam!.

The possibility of global thermonuclear warfare by accident or calculation was very real!. When the US was ahead in nuclear bombs, there were serious discussions about a preemptive strike against the USSR!. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 could have been the spark!.

I was a kid then, but even as a kid I knew that civil defense measure like 'duck and cover' were total bu**sh*t!. In a civil defense exercise in 1961 or 1962, the assumption was that the Soviet would explode a 2 megaton weapon against Glen Cove Long Island, outside the city limits of NYC where I lived!. Only a teenager, I knew this for bu**sh*t also!. The Russkies would not drop just a single warhead on Long Island!. They would drop a 20 megaton warhead on Times Square and that was just for starters!.

When I was stationed in Europe, I often worried that an armored drive across the Central European Plain really could defeat the Allies!. I feared we would really lose even though we were the good guys!. Maybe we were the modern Athens faced with a militaristic modern day Sparta!.

What a relief when we won the Cold War!. Actually the Russians won too in the sense that they were no longer threatened with annihilation and did not have to carry the burden of empire!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

the cold war wasn't an actual "war"

US and Russians were enemies, but there was no actual fighting!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was very chilly!. Every man woman and child was issued a spoon and a parka!. the Gov!. was hoping that the blasts would heat things back up!.Www@QuestionHome@Com