It is hard to explain to people today how scary nuclear war was during the Cold War. It wasn’t so much just that we were in real jeopardy of starting a deliberate nuclear war: it was the fact that we were heartbeats away from doing one by accident, and nearly did a couple of times [1]. It was standard for kids in elementary school to discuss the implications (at least we didn’t bother with duck and cover when I grew up, since politicians realized that was pointless.) Maybe we’re still in the same place (or will be again soon) but today’s atmosphere is nowhere near as scary.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov