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The nuclear scare was definitely that constant, if not even more so. It was also a much more black and white issue, there was a clear us vs them to it. I personally think that 9/11 and the response to it would have all been taken completely differently if it weren't for the Cold War only ending a decade before. Bush wasn't laughed out of Congress for talking about an Axis of Evil because it sounded exactly like American foreign policy had for decades at that point, notably Reagan's Evil Empire back in the 80's.