Answer:
The term "cold war", which was applied to the conflict that arose between the then two super powers: the United States and the USSR, may have some times been a little misgiving. When talking to people who were at a reasonable age to understand what was going on at the time, like a grandparent, usually they will let you know that those times felt anything but cold.
The Cold War, we must remember, was the period that stood between the end of the Second World War, 1945, and the 1980´s, until the very fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR. In those many years, says my grandfather, the conflict did not feel "cold"; if anything, it felt hotter than hot and the world at large held its breath for the initation of the first war of the nuclear age.
Aside from that, witnesses from those times say that the atmosphere of suspicion, of persecution, of injustice towards people who thought away from the mainstream, was terrible, and there was a lot of fear for being identified as communist, because anyone thought differently.
Probably one of the most terrible situations during this Cold War for people of that time, was the confrontation that almost took place between the U.S and the USSR with the missile crisis. And that´s without mentioning the fact of Vietnam, which became a total disaster for the U.S.
This is in general what people who experienced the Cold War say to those who ask.
