[CaptainCrunch]

Of course a first strike is still on the books, the concept of a decapitation strike against a mobile enemy government, or a disarming strike could become necessary

The target packages on the ICBM's during the cold war were mostly aimed at the Soviet missile fields. I don't know if you've ever seen a nuclear silo, but conventional weapons didn't have the range or destructive power to ensure that those missiles wouldn't launch. America's inventory of extremely accurate weapons made the Soviets change their doctrine to mobile missile launchers that were either rail or road based. The Russians actually had very little in the way of stationary silos.

Submarine based missiles were less accurate and were mostly targeted at high value city targets.

The idea behind nuclear poker is to convince your enemy that you can hit them before they launch their missiles. That still remains in place with China probably being the largest Nuclear threat to America, especially since the Chinese missiles aren't accurate enough for counterforce and are targeted to cities in Russia and the U.S.

Israel's nuclear capability is based more around aircraft based missiles but rumor has it that they have long range sub capable cruise missiles with heavy warheads. France isn't really a nuclear threat, nor are the British.

The concern is a unfriendly nation such as North Korea or Iran developing the warheads to go with their already nuclear capable missiles. the problem with North Korea or Iran is that they know that the minute that they start fueling their first missile for launch, the American counterforce strike will be on the way and be able to hit long before their missile can launch.