Cold

Let’s look at that “New Cold War” idea some more - that is, that the United States and Russia are going to...well, what?

At least for the latter part, the Cold War meant

A) Finding evidence supporting that the West was Best, short of fighting a full-scale war;

B) Hoping that our side wouldn’t mess up on the main fronts (diplomatic, espionage, proxy wars) any worse then their side;

C) Constant fear of nuclear annihilation.

People born before 1991 may not realize how constant Item C was, how every news bulletin carried with it the possibility that The Big One had started. It was like the war was on, already, every minute - we were only waiting for the switch to go from Cold to Violently Hot. It’s going to be difficult to consider the new situation anything like a “Cold War” until that attitude prevails again.

With the exception of that, though, these really remind me most of either the run-up to the (American) Civil War, or the French and Indian War 100 years before that. Everything from 1820 on seemed to be decided in terms of whether it supported or opposed the South and their slave-holding ways. Trying to make sense of The Seven Years War, meanwhile, is very much like trying to understand why the U.S. cared that Cuba was helping Angola be Marxist. The current situation isn’t nearly as confusing: Putin wants control of more of the former USSR than he does, and is doing what he can to reassert it. Depending on his success or lack of same, it could be a real war, but not a Cold one.