This;
‘The first, absolutely first, rule is never directly involve the head of state. He or she can watch but should not become directly involved. When one does become involved it lets an audience see how you think and what you would do”
is such common sense but I wouldn’t have thought of it.
However one would hope the so called leader of your country would be smart enough to think of it
thank you for pointing this out
For example I worked on a Pol-Mil game where the Soviet Boomer Boats had moved into position in the North Atlantic and we knew where they were. The Joint Staff requested release authority to drop some tactical nuc’s in the area to destroy them before they launched. We heard the meeting at the WH was led by the VP but I never knew for sure being too far down the “food-chain”. I do recall we got a rejection back saying we could not preempt the threat.