there was plenty of hot war in the Cold War. The Korean War saw lots of fighting between communists and capitalists, as did the Vietnam War. I mean, these days we remember "the domino effect" as silly paranoia, but after Korea and especially China became communist, Vietnam's movement toward communism seemed very much a threat to Japan, which the U.S. had helped re-make into a vibrant capitalist ally. So the US got bogged down in one of its longest wars while the Soviets assisted the North Vietnamese army in the Viet Cong. But then we paid them back by supporting the anti-communist mujaheddin after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Of course , as we now know, nobody conquers Afghanistan ...unless you are the mongols. So after 10 disastrous years, the Soviets finally abandoned Afghanistan. Some of those mujaheddeen later became members of the Taliban, though, so it's difficult to say that anyone won that war.