You can’t take this case and generalize. In fact, the US’ strategy was a first strike with a handful of nukes and a second, huge wave after the first strike took out main communication/decision centers. So if this had been a real strike, having this intelligent person disregard protocol could have ended in a disaster for the Soviet Union.
…On the other hand, a not-so-intelligent person that blindly followed protocol would have caused the downfall of the US and Soviet Union and the death of hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
>>So if this had been a real strike, having this intelligent person disregard protocol could have ended in a disaster for the Soviet Union.
It would have been a disaster anyway, if it was a real strike Soviet Union couldn't prevent it in any feasible way. The only thing they could possibly do was level the United States, but it wouldn't change the outcome for them.
>On the other hand, a not-so-intelligent person that blindly followed protocol would have caused the downfall of the US and Soviet Union
I was reading on the Cuban missile crisis last night. There not one but several instances where the Americans said 'if x happens, we nuke the soviets', and then when x happened they didn't (for example, the downed U2 incident). The Soviets probably had just as many of those incidents. I think it really shows that deep down nobody was actually ready to go to war, so in all the chances they had to launch they chose instead not to.
The Cuban Missile Crisis is fascinating. I think the US military was absolutely ready to go to war, but thankfully they were reined in by the civilian leadership. Some parts of the US military had been pushing for a preemptive strike on the Soviets for years (thinking, correctly, that the Soviets had little capability to strike back at the US, but that it would not remain that way for much longer) and saw Cuba as a good opportunity to finally get it done. That scene from Dr. Strangelove where General Turgidson says the US would "get our hair mussed" with a mere 10-20 million dead was a pretty accurate portrayal of how a lot of the military leadership thought. And they pushed Kennedy hard to go to war. A more bellicose president could have easily been swayed by them, and we'd be living in a different world today.
Even if communications network were destroyed the early warning burnkers could launch rockets that would fly over silos and broadcast directly the launch order.
…On the other hand, a not-so-intelligent person that blindly followed protocol would have caused the downfall of the US and Soviet Union and the death of hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
We all just got lucky.