It was. We are very lucky there was never a direct confrontation between the different sides at the height of their strength. If the USSR and China had been able to create a common cause and gone fully aggressive in the 70s, there would've been a good chance of either a nuclear war or WWIII sweeping the world. That is a hot war.
It was the middle of winter in the arctic compared to any shooting engagement between the Warsaw Pact nations and NATO.
Proxy wars every decade are basically world peace compared to any realistic scenario as to how a shooting war between the major powers would have played out.