I grew up during the Cold War. The possibility of a nuclear war was always a minute in the minds of Americans during the 50s and 60s. You know lementary school I remember the duck and drill. For those of you younger than me this may seem like unknown tongues to you.
The closest we ever came to nuclear war was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in which John F Kennedy faced down Nikita Khrushchev to remove nuclear missiles from Cuba.Â
 During that time my uncle volunteered to work for the civil defense and brought home Geiger counters.  As a third grader it did not dawn on me how close we came to nuclear annihilation. Not until I read about it later in high school and college.
But back then we had a doctrin in called mutually assured destruction. It was called ironically the MAD doctrine. The result was if either the United States or the Soviet Union launched a nuclear attack the other would launch a similar attack. Â Thus guaranteeing instant annihilation of the planet. Â In some insane way this doctrine kept the United States and the Soviet Union from destroying themselves and the rest of the planet.
Back in the 50s and the 60s I think more of a sanity ruled regarding the use of nuclear weapons. Also at that time we were not in the culture of death that we appear to be him now.
But now we are in a different era period in the late 80s and 90s there was some optimism when perestroika and glasnost took root in the Soviet Union. Basically threw an arms race that drained the Soviet Union it was said that Ronald Reagan had conquered the evil empire.
It seemed that a new era of peace and prosperity had dawned And some had even considered the possibility of scaling back nuclear weapons.Â
Perhaps eliminating them all together.
Then 9/11 occurred and it became a different world altogether. There was the fight against terrorism. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in other parts of the world. The presidencies of Bush and Obama. Â And now to where we are at presently.
A short time ago  US Admiral Scott Swift said in a Q&A in Australia that if ordered to he would have no compunction about nuking China. Probably North Korea would be thrown in that too.
Recently Secretary of Defense Gen. Mattis "Mad Dog" Mattis warned North Korea to not bring about the destruction of its people. Mathis indicated the United States would not forgo the use of nuclear weapons to defend itself. Â And to bring about the end of North Korea's nuclear program. One can also say to bring about the end of the Korean peninsula. And no telling how much of southern China. Â Nuclear radiation does not know any political boundaries.
One wonders if cooler heads prevail in this age as prevailed in the 60's. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev knew the risk of using nuclear weapons. Â But given the recent statement by Admiral Scott Swift about not having any compunction using nuclear weapons. One wonders if rational sanity reigns within our President and his military advisors.
It seems daily there is the talk of the use of nuclear weapons as if they were toys. Disregarding the fact that even The limited use of tactical nukes will have devastating consequences on life and property.
The United States  Russia, and China appear to be in another arms race to see who has the biggest nuke.  Add to the fact that North Korea and Iran are developing their nuclear programs.
And then there are the flashpoints of nuclear Pakistan and nuclear India. Â Not to mention China, which is a nuclear power, in its present border skirmish with India. Something is bound to happen soon which will result in the use of nuclear weapons.
In the opening paragraph of the book "On the Beach"  the statement is made no one knew how the war began.  It may have begun as a mistake or a miscalculation. But eventually the radiation seeped over the planet.  The world died  not with a bang, but with a whimper.
On the beach was a 1957 Cold War novel eventually made into a movie. It described the last vestiges of humanity living in Australia after a nuclear war. Eventually everyone died from the radiation that resulted in the war between the United States China and Russia.
Perhaps this may be our Legacy. No one really might know how the next nuclear war will begin. But God have mercy on us all when the missiles are launched.
Bro Blaine