The nuclear arms did little to restrain the actions of the USA and the soviet union in the cold war in the years of 1949-63?

On the surface, it can be argued to a partial extent that the arms race did restrain the actions of the USA and the USSR due to the fact that both leaders had mutual understanding of the impact that nuclear weapons would have on both nations, therefore, they couldn't condemn their nations to that sort of destruction.The establishment of MAD was an attempt of both nations to restrain the use of arms race. However, the fact that nuclear weapons were been produced at a rapid pace means that there was still underlying fear that one nation would use the weapon against the other which highlights that arms race did little to restrain the arm to a partial extent.

On one hand, it can seem that both leaders, Khrushchev and Eisenhower felt that the prospect of nuclear war was too terrifying, thus, we can argue that nuclear weapons played as a deterrence as both nations could not condemn their nations to nuclear annihilation. For example, the USA detonated their first hydrogen bomb on the first of November 1952 on Enwetak and this created a cloud of 100 miles and 25 miles high, killing every species near it, this highlights the destructive force of a weapon. The fact that the USA did not intervene during the Hungary crisis in 1956, even though, it would have been an beneficial for them as they would have had a democratic nation in a soviet sphere of influence, this strongly shows the willingness of the USA to not enter a war which uses nuclear weapons with the USSR, thus, demonstrating the USA restraint. However, this argument can be argued to be simplistic to a small extent as other factors could have restrained the USA and the USSR actions, for example , the fact that Khrushchev had a strong believe in the idea that the fall of capitalism will one