Looking at it from a personal viewpoint, nuclear weapons are a terrible thing, the destruction they cause and the contamination left behind are ghastly.
However, the threat of MAD was one of the (many) reasons we didn't have the cold war go hot. Although it was quite likely that the Soviet Union and NATO could have waged a war without the use of nuclear arms (ala RSR), the longer the war went on the more likely it would be that nukes would have been used. Probably small tactical nukes at first....then the bigger guns and then Game Over.
Who would have used them first? Well, that would depend on how well the primary assault went for the Sovs, since that would in essence determine the beat of the war. If it went badly then chances are it would the Soviets using it for a breakthrough, and vice versa for NATO.
If not nukes then certainly chemical weapons...which in my opinion are just as bad as nukes.
So...at the end of that tangent, my basic point is, nukes are like having a dog, it may not stop a burglar but it'll give him/her something to think about.
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