In the first two world wars, there were major campaigns and theaters, large scale battles between Us and Them. When did that happen in the Cold War? World War Two had the Battle of Kursk, Operation Barbarossa, the Hurtigen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge...what major engagements did the Cold War have that even remotely resembled these battles? It was the Allies versus the Axis then...did NATO and the Warsaw Pact ever come to all-out blows in the same manner? I must have slept through it if they did.
The War on Terrorism has had two major theaters of operations so far...Afghanistan and Iraq, and who knows how many classified operations? The WOT is a real war...the Cold War was not.
When I was in Germany, we had a few dozen cross-border incidents, mostly escapes, some of which involved a round or two being fired. Major Nicholson was killed in East Germany. How does that constitute a World War? It doesn't. To even call the Cold War a war is to stretch and distort the meaning of the word "war". "Cold War" is really nothing more than a convenient label to put on a period of time that would be more difficult to explain with other words. To call it the Third World War is a complete misnomer. Words mean things, you know.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!