[steven2012]

I'm not sure what you mean by "morals". If you're implying that Russian knew that the US would never attack, but the Americans couldn't trust that the Russians would never attack, then that would still be propaganda at work.

If some Americans actually believed that the Russians were so maniacal that they would attack, even in spite of Mutual Assured Destruction, then those Americans were foolishly suckered in by propaganda.

[Helianthus]

... It's not like we have any clear examples where the world was moments away from nuclear war or anything.

Now you might say that this was a result of American paranoia and that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But thinking that Russian expectations on the matter weren't naive is somewhat naive.