for this to be true it must be demonstrated that the very large stockpile & tot-for-tat meetings of american escalations from the Soviets meaningfully altered US belligerency. i do not think this is a clear or correct conclusion to draw from the cold war.
It's probably not super helpful to debate counterfactuals since they're not probable either way. I do think it's reasonable to say that Russia's nuclear stockpile deters NATO escalations in Ukraine even to this day. But again, not provable unless you've sat in on some top level NATO meetings.
for this to be true it must be demonstrated that the very large stockpile & tot-for-tat meetings of american escalations from the Soviets meaningfully altered US belligerency. i do not think this is a clear or correct conclusion to draw from the cold war.
It's probably not super helpful to debate counterfactuals since they're not probable either way. I do think it's reasonable to say that Russia's nuclear stockpile deters NATO escalations in Ukraine even to this day. But again, not provable unless you've sat in on some top level NATO meetings.