Question

why the cold war never converted into hot war

Answer 1

Primarily because both of the superpowers had nuclear weapons, and the enormous possibility that any kind of escalation could potentially lead to their use and the end of human life. The U.S. showed at the end of WWII that they not only had nuclear weapons, but would use them if the situation called for it. Therefore it was not an empty threat. The Soviets detonated their first in 1949, fairly soon thereafter. Initially there were few nukes in the arsenal of the two countries, and they were also both exhausted by the effort of WWII.

Both sides continued to amass weapons, but one thing that became ever more important was that their satellite partners and allies could not do anything that could draw them into a serious war. Proxy wars therefore were supported, but only to an extent. the Soviets were present in Korea and Vietnam, for example, but extreme care was made to insure that pilots from the USSR did not get shot down and captured in enemy territory which could lead to escalations. No all-out was erupted between the two sides because Soviet doctrine was to overflow Western Europe through the Fulda Gap in Germany, and the NATO response to being overrun was to use tactical nukes which would lead to a retaliation in kind, which would then…

In other words, it would have been a very bad idea to turn the Cold War into a hot war

Answer 2

The Cold War never escalated into an actual conflict like World War 1 or 2 for a couple of reasons. If Russia directly attacked the US, then the US would bomb Russia, and vice versa. This would lead into nuclear mayhem for the entire world, and pretty much destroy all life on Earth. both countries wanted to be the top dog, and rule how the world worked, but whats the point if everyone is dead?

Russia also couldn’t support a full blown war, if the USSR would’ve plummeted into massive debt and collapsed almost immediately. World War 2 had left the Soviet Union badly damaged. they were tasked with rebuilding every country between Berlin and Moscow.