Every nuclear war game I’ve been in goes full and total exchange eventually unless they arbitrarily stop it. They often did, usually going for a few hours at most. Even those that start out kind of tit-for-tat eventually go full on, because who wants to get sucker-punched and lose all your leverage if you enemy/potential enemy has nukes left when yours are gone due to not reacting in time?
China could think they’re going to wait out a Russia/USA slugfest, but neither side wants them to later dictate nuclear terms, so they get targeted, too. Same for Pakistan/India, Israel/Iran, and the British and French will follow America, as they’d be as likely targets of Russia, too. And who can blame Russia even if the French say they’ll remain neutral?
No, the whole world suffers. Also, at Cheyenne Mountain weather data was cycled in in real time so we know which way the fallout would go at any particular time. Not just fallout but really huge radioactive dust storms. Here in the USA, winds are generally west to east, but not every day. Same worldwide. You’d think your country would be safe, but...
The only “benefit” I can say was back in my day bombs/warheads were bigger due to some imprecision of the delivery vehicle (missile or aircraft). Now that accuracy is much better, warhead size has shrunk.
Everything I’ve read pretty much agrees with that but my real point was trying to educate the people who think that Russia would come out better because they are better prepared with Civil Defense.
I think that the body counts deciding who won to be ridiculous, it would be people left in a nation that won’t be substantial again for generations so there isn’t anything to win since all participating nations involved would become second or third rate for decades and not be major players anymore.
I also assume the world economy would be wrecked, everyone would be set back so far that the original arguments and competition that led to the exchange are evaporated and longer apply, there is no solution or better positioning coming out of a nuclear exchange, no new resources or territory to take, no new markets, nothing to take since the participants would be limited to domestic challenges for decades to come, tied up with local concerns and rebuilding their economy, government and social structure.