Historically US policy towards the USSR up until 1983 was escalation as a means of showing dominance. And it put the world on the brink of nuclear apocalypse that indeed would likely have happened if not for a single man. [1] But in 1983 we ran one of the most elaborate wargames ever played - Proud Prophet. [2] In that wargame a large number of strategies to defeat the USSR were trialed - limited nuclear strikes (or demonstrative strikes), decapitation strikes, and so on.
And literally every single outcome led to the defacto end of the world, or at least the Northern Hemisphere. Following the outcome of those wargames we shifted to a policy of de-escalation and negotiation - by 1991 the Soviet Union would collapse, their leaders hand in hand with American leaders. At one point Russia was even interested in joining NATO. We could be living in a very different timeline had we chosen to maintain positive ties with mutual respect of interests.
And literally every single outcome led to the defacto end of the world, or at least the Northern Hemisphere. Following the outcome of those wargames we shifted to a policy of de-escalation and negotiation - by 1991 the Soviet Union would collapse, their leaders hand in hand with American leaders. At one point Russia was even interested in joining NATO. We could be living in a very different timeline had we chosen to maintain positive ties with mutual respect of interests.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Prophet