Another interesting point is that besides China, the only target locations nukes were used were actually within Russia's borders. The Soviets made a conscious decision to not use them within the borders of another country, not even their allies. It was the West that widened the area.
So basically there's fault on both sides. The Soviets used them first sure, but that was effectively in self defence with almost all other options exhausted.
Nato retaliated, but widened the nuked zone.
My belief is the war went nuclear due to a failure of the various intelligence agencies, or those they reported to. Either the spooks didn't pick up the warning signs that the Soviets were being pushed to the brink, or those above chose not to accept those warning signs and made the decision to keep pushing forward with the misguided idea the war would stay conventional even in the face of Soviet defeat.
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If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.
Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"
Mors ante pudorem
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