Why didn’t we blow ourselves up?

We didn’t blow ourselves up because nobody wanted to make a first strike. Neither side knew the full extent of its enemy’s military power…the Russians could always have a bigger bomb, or simply more of them. The USSR and US were immobilized by fear associated with the assumption that the world is ending, an outcome that neither state wanted to be responsible for.
As fun as I found the simulation, there is a flaw to it. We all wanted to blow each other up, because it would be silly and fun…not in real life. In real life, it seems to me, some of the things that we did would have been absurd, but perhaps it just seems that way to me because I know how the Cold War ended. For example, I am fairly certain that Russia would not tolerate nukes in Japan, as the US wouldn’t approve of nukes in Mexico. I know as an example from the other class that the USSR took over Ireland, simply to mess with Declan. Would the Russians have expressed any interest in Ireland in the real world? I highly doubt it, but the Russians in the other class decided it would be fun.
Now, I know that it is a simulation, and that nothing can be perfect, but the game is set up so that each team wants to nuke each other, because total victory on both sides sounds lame and boring—but that’s what happened, and I’m glad of it.