Why different areas of the cold war did not convert into a hot war between the two alliances.

OR

Identify any one occasion/ instance where cold war between the two superpowers became a simple struggle for power by ignoring the ideological dimension.

Different areas of the cold war did not convert into a hot war between the two alliances because of the logic of rationality and responsibility used between the countries. This mainly had two implications:

Assuming one alliance initiated an attack on the other, the level of retaliation could not be underestimated. It would have led to widespread destruction.

If one alliance decided to attack the nuclear weapons of the other alliance, the latter would still have enough left to cause destruction.

OR

The ideology of the two super - US and Soviet Union were of democracy and dictatorship respectively. But on certain occasions, the cold war became a struggle for power and the ideologies were ignored. For example, the Soviet Union and China had a rift. The US took this as an opportunity to extend a hand of friendship to China only to balance its power against its rival.