No they aren’t, nukes as a weapon are better as a defensive or retaliatory response. Whichever country breaks the nuclear taboo will be evaporated by the survivors, hell there’s a good chance that if any countries outright survive they may send expeditions into the offending country to hunt down theoretically surviving leadership.

Stop parroting shitty cold war propaganda. It’s a piss poor excuse and there’s no reason that the response must come from the executive head of state. It could be some dude named Jep who is known to have a cool head and will be shot regardless of if it’s the correct response or not to ensure they don’t fuck up.