Deterrence

12 Pages 2890 Words

the superpowers could expect any internal opposition to be supported by the other superpower, similarly, any opposing state would also receive support. With the exceptions of Korea (1950-54), Vietnam (1965-74) and Afghanistan (1979-86) where one side was drawn into direct conflict, both sides avoided direct intervention, preferring to indirectly support groups or states already involved. If one superpower did get involved directly, the inevitable end would be a large scale war - as what happened in the above three exceptions. If both were directly involved, the almost inevitable end would be an escalation to nuclear weapons. The result was firstly the increase in costs for the superpowers overall strategy. The main outcome was by using these third world countries as pawns for their war, they increased the level of technology used by each side to fight each other, resulting in much more severe conflicts. There are many examples of indirect intervention, the most well known on a regional basis are: Israel and the Arab states (1948-90) and the Ho...