Korean War World War 3

Techinically speaking isn't the Korean War World war 3. It was the United States, the UN and South Korea against China and North Korea. Did the USSR help the other nations?
 
Not directly, however it does seem that Soviet pilots flew North Korean and Chinese Mig-15s. They also supplied weapons and equipment such as the aforementioned jets and T-34s etc.

However it was not a World War because it was limited to the Korean Peninsular and there was no direct conflict between the USA, its allies and the USSR.
 
So by extention could the entire Cold War be counted as World War 3? It was fought not with guns but economies.
According to some Historians, World War is a conflict between at least 2 (3) world powers fought on at least 293) continents. Now, lets count:
30 Years War, King Williams War, Queen Anne’s War, War of the Spanish Succession, King George’s War, French and Indian War / Seven Years War, French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars.
And then add 2 WW from 20th century. Some Historians add Cold War and then War on Terror. ;)
 
So by extention could the entire Cold War be counted as World War 3? It was fought not with guns but economies.

I teach the Cold War as though it was a "real war". Divided into different phases and different theatres of operations.

Matt White's Great Big Book of Horrible Things attributes 11 MILLION deaths to the Cold War directly (and if we add such things as internal communist oppression of their own people in places like China, the death toll jumps to the 40 MILLION range at minimum).

Abeit spread over 40 years or so. That's still a million people dead each year due to the Cold War on the average.

And for what its worth, though the Cold War didn't have nuclear weapons dropping on cities, at the very least thousands of people died directly as a result of nuclear weapons. The Soviets marched thousands of soldiers directly through an irradiated area at least once with the death toll in the thousands (perhaps).

And though American/Soviet direct conflict was avoided for the most part, I've counted up anywhere from 300-500 instances of direct conflict between U.S. and Soviet forces in the air or at sea over the decades.
 
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