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<blockquote data-quote="GuyBoy" data-source="post: 8328395" data-attributes="member: 7031143">Not entirely sure about that last sentence. Alternate history is, by its very nature, uncertain, but I think there is reasonable doubt that WW3 would have occurred if not for nuclear weapons. Even with such weapons, we came relatively close twice: Cuba in 1962 and Able Archer in 1983. It may be that it was the spectre of nuclear war that definitely prevailed, but it may not. Certainly, plenty of proxy wars were fought anyway during the Cold War and it’s certainly possible to argue that these would have happened anyway, but no further. Stalin, for all his paranoia and unpleasantness, was realistic enough not to push for a conventional WW3 in 1945 (when he probably had the best chance) and it is far from certain that it was only nuclear weapons that prevented him then or later. I’m not sure that any future Soviet leaders had the will to actively pursue WW3, with or without nuclear weapons. Certainly no US Presidents did. Where was the gain, particularly since the economic systems pointed to an eventual US win regardless. Nuclear weapons may well have been a factor preventing WW3, but they weren’t the only factor.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GuyBoy, post: 8328395, member: 7031143"] Not entirely sure about that last sentence. Alternate history is, by its very nature, uncertain, but I think there is reasonable doubt that WW3 would have occurred if not for nuclear weapons. Even with such weapons, we came relatively close twice: Cuba in 1962 and Able Archer in 1983. It may be that it was the spectre of nuclear war that definitely prevailed, but it may not. Certainly, plenty of proxy wars were fought anyway during the Cold War and it’s certainly possible to argue that these would have happened anyway, but no further. Stalin, for all his paranoia and unpleasantness, was realistic enough not to push for a conventional WW3 in 1945 (when he probably had the best chance) and it is far from certain that it was only nuclear weapons that prevented him then or later. I’m not sure that any future Soviet leaders had the will to actively pursue WW3, with or without nuclear weapons. Certainly no US Presidents did. Where was the gain, particularly since the economic systems pointed to an eventual US win regardless. Nuclear weapons may well have been a factor preventing WW3, but they weren’t the only factor. [/QUOTE]

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