Nuclear cruisers were expensive, but cost alone does not explain their disappearance. The US Navy had already operated them for decades, and their retirements clustered in the 1990s rather than during the Cold War. The argument is that they became too expensive once planners no longer expected a peer conflict. The peace dividend changed the value assigned to an existing capability without proving that the capability had always been wasteful.
Notable Point · 9:59-12:09
The peace dividend changed what counted as too expensive
The retirement argument distinguishes absolute operating cost from the post-Cold War judgment that an expensive peer-war capability was no longer needed.