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That doesn't work out. Unfortunately.
Reason:
When it was politicians who fought the Cold War, they were few who had actually a say, and these few got some minimum brain, at least.
But in your scenario, it is random jerks who execute that scheme everywhere. There will be some who pull the trigger just for ... all kinds of stupid shit that has triggered them. So you'd have nukes going off somewhere, at least every few days, and then nobody can really rule the world anymore with them. The power of the threat will be gone.
Politicians didn't fight the Cold War. It wasn't pasty fat men in their 60s training the Mujahideen in Afghanistan or on the front lines of Korea or any of a dozen other proxy wars. Politicians, as a rule, tend to avoid things that pose a serious risk to their health (which makes it kind of ironic that they tend to spend their careers putting other people in proximity to those things instead, doesn't it?)
Eh.. maybe one or two. But most people (like the politicians above, funnily enough) tend to have a pretty strong survival instinct. I agree it would absolutely be chaos, but most people wouldn't think of making a nuke, much less know what kind of nuke they should make, or even how to make one in a 1m^3^ box, they would just get regular guns and chemical weapons and shit. Still lots of chaos. Just less radiation.
I do not count these as the Cold War.
Proxy wars have their special funding and maybe false motives, but they are hot wars. Real wars.
The Cold War consisted of threats. Piling up weapons, bombs, nukes, and counting and comparing who's got more of them. These threats were made mainly by politicians. Maybe I was wrong in saying they "fought" it.
..okay. Historians do, though, so I hope you understand if I go with them on this one. Also those were just examples, if you don't like them there are plenty of other proxy wars you can pick from to see my point illustrated pretty much everywhere.
That's fair though, it was more than just one thing, and like most things in life it's far more complex than it seems on the surface. I just take particular exception to any suggestion that politicians in any way risked their neck for literally anything ever.