Rumor, heard in the 70s from a relative, who had it told to him by somebody who had heard (etc):
The US Army ran simulations about Russia attacking Western Europe which gave control over tactical nuclear weapons to the field commanders.
When NATO started losing (which happened from time to time in the drills) the generals reached for the biggest nukes that could use — and took out their own troops along with the Russians.
“Acceptable losses” is what they term that
Yeah I don’t doubt that for one flipping second