I've been thinking about this a lot. There is, and has been from the day the Cold War started, a lot of media hyperbole about how a nuclear war would destroy civilisation as we know it. I want to actually look at the facts, and think about what would have happened if the red button had been pressed in 1962 or 1983, let's just say 1962 for this question.
Say if Vasili Arkhibov had got on a different submarine, and a nuclear torpedo had destroyed the US fleet, what actually would have happened? Surely Cuba would have been obliterated as the US would have invaded the country. But wouldn't Khrushchev and Kennedy have tried to clear things up as quickly as possible, as neither of them wanted a nuclear holocaust? If a few missiles had been fired, would the USSR and USA have fired their entire arsenal? Or would it have ended there? Would military targets be hit first, or would they aim straight for cities?
Even had there been an all out nuclear war between the USA and USSR, I don't think it would have wiped out humanity. Whilst all countries would be effected by the radiation in the atmosphere and nuclear winter, I don't think all countries would have had an strike. Some of the countries which would be safe I think would have been:
Argentina
Australia
New Zealand
Austria
Switzerland
Sweden
If a nuclear war had happened, could these six developed nations have preserved the heritage of western civilisation and in the coming decades, gradually rebuild society?