Theorists such as Cable and Gorshkov remain worth reading, though their valuable ideas were embedded in wider groupthink on both sides. Much planning reduced the conflict to a zero-sum race toward the largest weapons and the speed with which they might be used. Under that assumption, operations after the nuclear exchange received little attention. The surviving target lists often prioritised population and industrial centres, which identified what to hit but did not amount to a developed strategy for achieving political or maritime aims.
Notable Point · 1:08:46-1:10:17
When a target list stood in for strategy
Cold War groupthink reduced conflict to a zero-sum contest over the largest weapons and often produced target lists without a wider concept of operations.