Simulation, day 2: Why we didn't blow ourselves up

We didn't blow ourselves up because the Soviets knew next to nothing about the Americans and the Americans knew next to nothing about the Soviets.  The paranoia that grew out of poor intelligence (on both sides, but especially the American side) led to such scare tactics as Kennedy's missile gap.  In our simulation, however, it was brutally obvious to us (the Soviets) what the nuclear capabilities of our rivals were, and we also knew that they would not learn of our order to bomb them.  We weren't as isolated and afraid as our real-life Soviet counterparts.