>MAD means we probably won’t have a major war any time soon
Was the Korean war a major war in your book? To the Korean people it was.
In that war, the US's having nukes did not prevent North Korea from starting the war, did not prevent the Soviets from sending MIGs with Soviet pilots against the US army and air force and did not prevent China from sending a million soldiers.
From a euro centric perspective Korea is a proxy war. MAD blocks major conflict directly between two nuclear states or states with strong nuclear allies. It doesn’t prevent wars fought in other territories backed by nuclear states (eg Syria)
China sends a million soldiers over its border with Korea with the usual instructions to try to kills as many soldiers of the enemy (composed mostly of US soldiers) as possible, and your reply is that that is not a major conflict between the US and China?
Alternatively, do you claim that the fact that China at that time lacked nukes somehow emboldened China whereas if they had had nukes, they would have hesitated?
Conventional wars have been fought in the past between two nuclear states. On example is that of the Kargil War[1] which was a major conflict between India and Pakistan. This was not fought in a different territory.
Was the Korean war a major war in your book? To the Korean people it was.
In that war, the US's having nukes did not prevent North Korea from starting the war, did not prevent the Soviets from sending MIGs with Soviet pilots against the US army and air force and did not prevent China from sending a million soldiers.