Problem: Proxy wars during the Cold War were not a reliable approach to successful gain control of an area for either of the superpowers. It put a lot of power in uncertain scenarios as to how the people from those Third Worlds would react to these conflicts and their aftermaths. There was a lot of ambiguity and unpredictability in the way that proxy wars played out, and the outcomes were often unpredictable and unsatisfactory. It was difficult to predict how people would react to the interventions of the superpowers, and the results of proxy wars were often not in line with the intended outcomes of the superpowers.
The question that I have is "Is there a clear explanation as to why both sides still gravitated towards what seemed to be a failing strategy?