Found in 2 comments on Hacker News
acgourley · 2022-03-02
· Original
thread
For a history of how it has in fact often been a single person, and may still be, see: https://www.amazon.com/Doomsday-Machine-Confessions-Nuclear-...
roywiggins · 2019-11-10
· Original
thread
I was garbling a scenario from Ellsberg's book. I believe the time period in question was the 50s-early 60s (the same period where these tactical nukes were popular) when MAD was being enforced by bombers, not ICBMs.
According to Ellsberg, there was a period where there was no actual plan to defend Europe by other means than massive nuclear retaliation.
https://www.amazon.com/Doomsday-Machine-Confessions-Nuclear-...
