the US thought that somehow the smart thing to do with an angry and paranoid rival nuclear power was play games of chicken while going “come at me bro”
the USSR’s response to this was to set up deterrence… by deploying people to secretly spy on the US guys to allow them to know beforehand if an attack was launched, so they could retaliate… which would have no deterrent effect if the US didn’t know.
The background of the Stanislav Petrov incident is literally one of the dumbest and most insane things I have ever read (attached screenshot below):
Appreciate that this means:
the US thought that somehow the smart thing to do with an angry and paranoid rival nuclear power was play games of chicken while going “come at me bro”
the USSR’s response to this was to set up deterrence… by deploying people to secretly spy on the US guys to allow them to know beforehand if an attack was launched, so they could retaliate… which would have no deterrent effect if the US didn’t know.
It’s a wonder we’re still here.