Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?

Question

I was wondering why the conflicts, missile deployments etc. throughout the Cold War were basically all taking place in Europe, Africa and Asia, when in fact the US and Soviet Union were only separated by a few kilometers over the Pacific. Wouldn't that have been the "ideal" area for a nuclear standoff? This also makes the Cuba Crisis look weird to me. Why make such a big deal out of transporting missiles all the way to Cuba, when the Soviets could have just moved and placed them within their own territory?

Answer 1

Siberia and Alaska are way too cold for missile silos and launches, but not Europe and North America. As Stalin got most of Eastern Europe after World War II, it became paramount to protect Western Europe from further encroachment. Most problematic was West Berlin, which was right in the middle of East Germany, though it remained a part of West Germany. Organizations such as NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Association, became very important for the halting of communist expansion. Winston Churchill, the son of an Englishman and an American actress, who saw Great Britain through the Second World War, famously intoned that an "Iron Curtain" had fallen down around Europe. The Soviet Union, once an ally, had become the technological adversary, with the aim of becoming the next superpower of the world. When Cuba accepted Soviet weapons so close to mainland America, it became a dicey situation indeed. It was too close for comfort. Fortunately Kruschev blinked and took the nuclear weapons back to the USSR, thanks to President Kennedy being undeterred with his insistence that he do so.

Answer 2

I happened to have done a project once for Arco Alaska to develop a heavy-equipment maintenance system for their Prudhoe Bay site on the northern shore of Alaska. The climate in that part of the world is anything but forgiving.

In most of Alaska and eastern Siberia, roads are practically nonexistent, so all equipment, material and personnel would have to be either flown in (unrealistic for the first two) or brought in by ship (which is only practical 4-5 months out of the year due to ice) and then trucked overland by heavy-duty offroad vehicles, which also means bringing in fuel, oil, and other necessary accessories. Not least important of these are heating blankets for vehicle engines - once winter sets in, an engine must be either be kept running 24/7 or have a heater over it when turned off or the radiator freezes solid in a matter of hours.

Furthermore, digging silos is problematic because of the permafrost. A few dozen feet below the surface, the ground is frozen year-round.