Thank you so much Petrov 23 4, 7:13am

@Packless1 Remember that the threat of retaliation was more important than the retaliation itself. I mean, if you have to retaliate then it's too late and you're all going to die anyway.

In fact, if you think about it logically, it would make more sense not to retaliate even if you knew for certain the other side had launched. With the other side's launch, you and your family and all your friends are going to die anyway. If you don't launch, at least the other half of the world has a chance of surviving and humanity might continue.

And of course both sides knew that the other side was perfectly capable of reaching the same conclusion - that it didn't make sense to retaliate.

But if you admit that you're not going to retaliate, then the other side knows that they can safely destroy you.

So you have to make the other side believe that you will retaliate even when the other side knows that it doesn't make logical sense of your to retaliate.

So they had to fire the guy. They couldn't let America believe that they would reward someone who refused to press the button.