Once we get into talking about alternate histories, our ability to have an evidence-based discussion pretty much goes out the window.

I'll say the following: 1) The cold war as we know it did come "close" in some sense to going hot; that's bad, that's x-risk in action 2) All things considered, the last 70 years as they actually happened went a hell of a lot better than the 70 years before, just on a political and military basis alone (so disregarding technology). 3) Ultimatums meant to monopolize the atomic bomb make sense if the goal is enacting a US-led One-World-Government, even if you believe WWIII would have broken out after ultimatums somehow fail to lead to peace 4) I DO believe WWIII would have broken out 5) I believe an attempted One-World-Government or other extreme attempt at global hegemony by the US would have been a disaster even without a USA-USSR WWIII.