It was an acknowledged source of damage, it wasn’t really part of their strategy. The USSR understood they would ALSO get some benefit from it.
The paranoid fools always obsess on the “one nuke 300 miles up” thing. That’s the one I mock the hardest because it’s just plain STUPID. As you already admitted. As for lower altitude then the real problem is the nuclear blast itself. Between the fireball, the blast wave and the fallout EMP is so far down the threat scale to be utterly pointless. The military’s job is to prepare for everything, after all they’re expected to keep fighting even after the country has been nuked out of existence.
Actually my position is widely shared. Most of the world realizes the whole thing is silly, which is why even though people have been insisting this is a massive threat for 50+ years only some civil infrastructure has even bothered with it. Even during the highly paranoid days of having kids in school duck and cover constantly they weren’t prepping for EMP, even though they knew it existed. It’s quite simply not that big a deal.
Ok friend. We will agree to disagree on most everything else, while agreeing that an EMP is actually a documented phenomena
There are reports before congress on the effects of EMP: http://www.empcommission.org/docs/empc_exec_rpt.pdf
Search by "EMP Congressional reports", and you will find a lot more.
Many years ago I taught chemical/biological/nuclear warfare survival, so, while not an expert, I have some idea.
In the cold war era, ham radio operators in the UK protect some, or all of their equipment by storing it in metal containers with insulating material between the equipment and the container.
This is cheap and easy to do.
Old ammo cans, metal garbage pails with metal lids, etc.
The insulation can be cardboard, newspapers, plastic, rubber, etc.
I protect some of my ham equipment that way right now.