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Mutually Assured Destruction meant that the Soviet Union could not attempt a nuclear attack on the US without risking a deadly reprisal…and vice-versa. The fears of such an occurrence were probably never closer to reality than they were during the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis.

Yet we almost DID face MAD without even knowing about it. The incident didn't come to light for 15 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

Stanislav Yefgrafovich Petrov (Russian: Ñòàíèñëàâ Åâãðàôîâè÷ Ïåòðîâ) (born c. 1939) is a retired Russian Strategic Rocket Forces colonel who, on September 26, 1983, averted a potential nuclear war by refusing to believe that the United States had launched missiles against the USSR, despite the indications given by his computerized early warning systems. The Soviet computer reports were later shown to have been in error, and Petrov is credited with preventing World War III and the devastation of much of the Earth by nuclear weapons. Because of military secrecy and international policy, Petrov's actions were kept secret until 1998.
This incident is one of several high-risk decisions that were made by strategic nuclear forces over the years of the Cold War, often at the last minute, by administrative personnel far from the chain of command.