Korean War Vs Cold War

Which was the bigger threat to world peace ~ The U2 Spy Crisis or The Korean War?

The Cold War spanned over forty years and was the combination of a multitude of related events. These events brought tension and political pressure between the USA and the USSR that could have resulted in complete mutually assured destruction (M.A.D) as both sides had the combined power to destroy the world. However, which pivotal event was the greatest threat to world peace, the U2 Spy crisis or the Korean War?

The Korean War was the war fought between the communists and the capitalists in Korea between the dates of 1950 and 1953. The aim of the war was to unite the two parts of Korea (North and South) that were once separated by the 38th Parallel.
Instead, each had dramatic advances and retreats pushing the opposition from one end of Korea to the other, eventually ending in a stalemate with both sides holding ground about the 38th Parallel. The war, however, was not solely contained in Korea and it had a large impact on both the capitalist and communist powers. Not only did it spread communism into Asia with the involvement of then communist China, it brought about the threat of a full nuclear attack between the two forces. Because of the successful spread of communism to China, the Americans felt this would cause a ‘Domino effect’ whereby the USSR would gradually turn more and more countries communist in a sort of cascade effect. The policy adopted by the then American president, Harry Truman, was to contain the spread of communism as much as possible and General Douglas MacArthur was tasked with the mission of keeping the communist forces in Korea at bay. However, as the war evolved it became increasingly difficult to gain an advance on the enemy. MacArthur then began to seriously contemplate using an Atomic bomb against the communists. If this course of action, as suggested by MacArthur, had been taken, we can be sure that not wanting to appear weaker, the USSR would have retaliated, using the Atomic bomb it had
The Lockheed-U2 was a single engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft that was deployed on missions to overfly the USSR and photograph and monitor various ground targets such as military bases, munitions factories and government headquarters. Its purpose was to provide reliable intelligence to the United States government so that they could monitor progress in the Soviet Union. The most prominent event in the history of the U2 however, was when pilot Gary Powers was shot down whilst flying a reconnaissance mission over Soviet territory. This was a turning point in the Cold War as the Soviets not only had the wreckage of his plane but the reconnaissance photographs themselves to prove once and for all that the USA had been running covert spying missions over soviet airspace. This was also one of the first direct conflicts between the USA and USSR that did not involve a proxy (such as Korea). It also proved that the more relaxed attitude of Soviet Premier Khrushchev would not prevent the outbreak of nuclear war. The incident could not have come at a worse time either, as both Khrushchev and Eisenhower (the then American President) were set to meet at the East-West Summit in Paris. It was hoped that they would eventually sign a treaty relieving some of the Cold war tensions in Europe. Once the plane wreckage had been secured, Khrushchev announced that an American plane