Editor's Questions to Reader

Here are two questions as food for thought:

1)In the Cold War, the US and USSR competed with each other through their involvement in proxy wars. People often discuss whether a certain side (e.g. the US, Western Europe, etc.) gained or lost advantages due to proxy wars.

Despite the obvious advnatages/disadvantages that proxy wars had on countries, did proxy wars do more harm than good to these countries ? Feel free to leave comments.

2)"The US and USSR must necessarily have participated in small regional conflicts during the Cold War era, or else they would have engaged in a mutual war and caused more devastating consequences." Do you agree? Why or why not? Explain.