I think the "cold war" while obviously a very stressful time in the lives of all Americans, has been recently over glorified simply because Ronald Reagan called on the Soviets to tear down the wall. It did come down and then the Soviet Union crumbled soon after during George the 1sts presidency. Most of the changes didn't come about because of ideological change or any real battles aside from the arms race ending in the bankruptcy of the Soviets. Given a few more years of high levels of military spending I'm pretty sure it was only a matter of time before we wnet bankrupt. I have never heard a vet refer to himself as a "cold warrior" or any such description.