I mean at this point would it not make more sense to support our allies own nuclear arsenal instead.This is why my entire point is that we should do our increase with budget in mind opposed to trying mindlessly to close the gap with USA, we simply need to make sure that our gap isn't to big like it's now and that we can bomb every major settlement across not just USA, but it's allies as well and third countries if push comes to showe.
But wasn't the US at a greater overall capacity and strike force during that time anyways? I mean it seemed to me that the reason things did not escalate was that the US and Soviets would rather not have nukes right next to them rather than any potential strike capability especially since the US dominated in that capacity during that time.Actually Soviets overtook USA otl when it comes to number of nuclear heads. Generally my point is to mantain the gap and parity with the USA relative to our economic. If our economy is half of their for example then we have half the nukes. Point is that we need to have significant number of nukes if cases like Cuban missle crisis comes around. Sometimes people won't play nice and we need to make sure that USA isn't only power with the monoply on force.
I mean it would make more sense to push nukes in strategic regions than simply having more would do us better in any potential negotiations.
But our strength was in mass manufacturing and military supplies. Also if we are talking on preparing would the bunker/cave gap be a greater issue? I mean I doubt we could even strike the US arsenal before the US unleashes it on us even in a parity scenario. Plus if you do worry about first strike capabilities then would it not make more sense to discover better and more efficient ways for delivery than sheer volume? Having a stronger nuclear fleet, missiles, and even orbital strike capability seems way more efficient in that regard.It's a cold war , we need to be ready for anything instead of simply ignoring important piece of our defense. More weapons and supplies will also cause mantainance issues and we can achieve that more easily by playing to out strength.