Should the Cold War be considered a war?

The Cold War was a war because of its deadly Arms Race

Question: Should the Cold War be considered a war?
Position1 of 2›: Yes, the cold war should be considered a war
Argument‹5 of 5: The Cold War was a war because of its deadly Arms Race

As both nations raced to build the most destructive atomic weapons, and schools practiced attack drills with the looming threat of atomic warfare, the Cold War tensions increasingly grew. The threat of an actual, devastating war was ever-present in both nations as the arms race ensued.

The argument

The Arms Race between the United States of America and the Soviet Union (USSR) represents why the Cold War was a war. After the Second World War, there was a race between the USA and the USSR (the two global superpowers at the time) to spread their form of government – either democracy or communism. A method that both countries chose to flex their muscles was the development of nuclear weapons. The United States created the Atom Bomb during WWII, and by 1949 the Soviets developed their own Atom Bomb as well. By 1952, the Americans built an even more powerful weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb – and the following year, the Soviets had their own too. Both countries could effectively wipe out humanity if they deployed their nuclear weapons. This added to the tension between both countries and pushed forward conflicts and proxy wars of the Cold War.

Context

Shortly after the end of World War Two, American politicians developed a strategy called "containment." The goal of this strategy was to contain Soviet influence in the world, particularly in places that recently gained their independence after the war.

Premises

[P1]After WWII the US and USSR raced to spread their rival systems of government, building ever more powerful nuclear weapons to flex their strength. [P2] Each escalation — the atom bomb, then the hydrogen bomb — was matched by the other within years, until both could wipe out humanity. [P3] This deadly arms race added immense tension and drove the conflicts and proxy wars of the period. [C] Therefore, because of its deadly arms race, the Cold War should be considered a war.

Counter-arguments

While the Arms Race between the United States and the Soviet Union escalated tensions between both countries, the decision to not use nuclear weapons conveys that the Cold War was not a war. The Soviets put nuclear weapons in Cuba – just over one hundred miles from the Florida coast – and fighting never occurred. The development of arms alone is not enough reason to call the Cold War a war.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise describes preparation for war rather than war. Competing to spread a system of government and building weapons to display strength are things states do in peacetime as well, and no criterion is offered here that distinguishes an armed peace from a war. [Rejecting P2] Matched escalation is evidence of deterrence, not of combat. The capacity to destroy one another is precisely what each side used to avoid fighting the other directly, so the fact that these weapons were never used against their intended target tells against the conclusion rather than for it — the counter's point about the Cuban missile crisis, where the confrontation ended without an exchange. [Rejecting P3] "Drove the conflicts and proxy wars" weakens the argument's own case. If the proxy wars are what make the period warlike, the arms race is at most an indirect contributing factor, and the position would stand on firmer ground argued from Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan — where fighting and casualties are not in dispute — than from weapons that stayed in their silos.