“Quantity has a quality, all it’s own”
Also having spent some time in Europe during that period, I know that WE would likely have been the ones to go Nuclear, first. In fact, it was the doctrine.
That said, the politics of Europe are far different now, than then. There is no “Combined Front” anymore, and the axis of interests aren’t the same, either.
Belgium or Britain, for example, aren’t going to cancel a Social Program to buy 15 new fighter aircraft, the handouts crowd just won’t stand for it. And you can bet the Russians know it, too.
I agree that it was us who probably needed tactical nukes to stop the overwhelming attack energy and capabilities that the Warsaw pact was built on.
This isn’t relevant but during the Vietnam war, I was Field Artillery and had a nuke clearance, we knew what that was about, and I still assumed that during the 1980s when I was doing something entirely different when we all anticipated dirty battle fields and our electronic gear was EMP protected.
In other words that was always the assumption, it isn’t insider stuff, we just couldn’t stop them with conventional forces (probably). Remember the Neutron bomb, it was developed for fighting in the West.