SO, let's assume that somehow, the KMT wins the Chinese Civil War post-1945 and that closes off Asia to Communist influence (including Indochina, Korea, etc). With the Soviet Union's eastern border effectively being controlled by US-friendly regimes, where else could Cold War proxy conflicts crop up? Africa? The Middle East? Could there be more conflicts in Latin America?
Is this kind of assuming that, in the absence of proxy conflicts in Asia, more would spring up in other locales to replace them?
I'm not sure if that's a valid hypothesis. It seems to be based on the idea that there had to be a certain number of proxy conflicts in the Cold War, and if X number of them weren't happening in Asia, they would happen somewhere else.
But, let's say(just off the top) that there were 16 proxy conflicts in Asia. With a western-allied China and Sinosphere, isn't it just as likely that the overall global count for these sorts of conflicts will simply be reduced by 16?
OR...
Can it be assumed that, since they're not spending cash and material propping up Asian Communists, the Soviets will logically divert those resources to conflicts elsewhere, AND find willing takers?