It's a terrible situation these men and women found themselves in. Holding the keys to humanity's continued survival, or its finale, would have taken an immense toll on them. Personally, I couldn't do it. I would be happy to serve my country and her people to the best of my ability, but as a person with deep moral convictions, simply turning a key and pressing the launch button would go against everything I believe in. Surely these officers have no idea of the circumstance of what would be going on in Washington, London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, New Dehli, Islamabad, Tehran, or Pyongyang under the threat of a nuclear launch. They couldn't determine themselves if launching wouldn't see a retaliatory strike or a first strike by a worried third-party on their loved ones and fellow countrymen. That's why I despise the nature of nuclear weapons for anything but as a tactical advantage. Cold War leaders were ready to send our species and all other forms of life on this planet into a nuclear winter for petty ideological differences and territorial disputes. Your average junior officer in the America or Russia had no quarrel with each other. They didn't jump off the walls each day for 45 years waiting to kill some commie scum or decadent capitalist pig. Had I been on Enola Gay or Bockscar in August 1945 high above Japan, knowing I could prevent a costly invasion saving the lives of not only hundreds of thousands of American and Commonwealth troops, but countless Japanese civilians, I would press the button in a second. Had I been in the Fulda Gap and my armored regiment was surrounded by a mechanized horde of Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops, I would have unleashed hell to ensure they don't reach Paris. It all depends on circumstance. Annihilating thousands, if not millions, in just a split second is a power that no person, sane or otherwise, should posses. Sadly these weapons turn war into a numbers game. It takes humanity out of the equation entirely.