And, what about THE COLD WAR?
Well, applying the old school definition of “war” as I posted it above, how would you take the Cold War? Was it a WAR?
It’s a hard question, I know. I didn’t want to answer it. The Cuban Missile Crisis and a few things here and there were settled by resort to force. Albeit the use of force to impose a temporary embargo is likely NOT a war act, especially as long as most cargoes are allowed through once examined.
I’d have to say the Cold War was not a war, by the old school definition, as most things settled by diplomacy short of war acts.
If I might stick an oar in, the entire point of the Cold War was to execute state-sponsored acts of violence by proxy. The wars of “liberation” in Africa alone were and continue to be too numerous to count. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and our own covert efforts to oppose it are another example. Vietnam, although that was a case of overt warfare. Korea, same story. Jungle warfare in the Philippines by uniformed units of both sides. Grenada. Berlin. In all of these places there was violent, armed conflict as a direct result of the ideological clash between the United States and the Soviet Union. In my opinion that qualifies as war.