[Skybird]

Throughout the cold war the public debate focusse don nuclear escalation over the war, with nukes being used by NATO first and at the end when conventional defence breaks down.

That a war indeed most likely would have been started with tscticla nukes used by the USSR to take out NATO air bases and C3I nodes was almost completely ignored.

And this since the first scenario obviously makes no sense, while the second, from a standpoint of military logic, does.


Whether China or the US would go nuclear over the south Chinese Sea, is questionable. However, it would be a bluffing game being played. And bluffs can go wrong. The danger is not an intention by either side to use nukes, but that escalation happens accidentally, due to misinterpretation of a conventional enemy attack as a nuclear strike. You would know only after impact whether it was a nuclear or conventional warhead. In my reasoning, it makes no sense to allow the enemy to land the first blow.