The nuclear balance of power in '56 (and indeed well into the 60s) was very one sided - this, after all, was the time of the fictitious "bomber gap":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomber_gap
The Soviets were, with some justification, terrified of a US first strike at the time.
Re:IBM 1959 Job Post
by jodrellblank on Sunday April 29, 2012 @11:35AM
(#3906196)
You are still implicitly going with the idea that someone has to defend the current civilisation on behalf of inferior pacifists who won't.
What if there's a peaceful answer which sacrifices way of life instead of human life? Would supporting it be "luxury"?
Setting aside the fact that almost nobody would have agreed to it, surrendering and living under communism would have sacrificed human life as well, just as it did for every other communist country.
When a man with his finger on the button of half the world's nukes says things like that, you damn well better put your best minds to work figuring out how not to let it happen.