I ask because he seemed extremely reluctant to get involved in any military action that might lead to engagement with the US.
edit: I'm talking more about involvement in Asia, where during the sino-soviet alliance, he was reluctant to support Mao in Korea and Taiwan until he was finally convinced the US wouldn't get involved due to the Acheson speech.
Was he just being smart and trying to avoid more war or did he have some genuine fear that the US would inevitably win.
I ask because he seemed extremely reluctant to get involved in any military action that might lead to engagement with the US
To further answer this question it would be good to know what exactly you mean by this. Are you asking if Stalin didn't invade Western Europe because of the US military? Specifically, what military actions do you mean?
Fight between the both was sometimes named the conflict of bear with a whale with USSR having a superiority in capability to quickly roll over Western Europe and being unable to compete both in air and on the seas with USA.Also long term war would be always against USSR because of their much smaller industrial base compared with USA along with their relative isolation on the world stage.Only Cuba was a soviet allied state during the cold war that could be compared to multiple NATO/USA allies that neighbored USSR like Turkey or other potential support from nations like Japan or UK while USSR had either occupied/subjugated eastern europe or China until the split that removed their only major ally.