Certainly one man can't be well-versed on every little thing. But global thermonuclear war is not a little thing. It is, arguably, the biggest thing, especially for a man who effectively had the ability to end human civilization by his decisions.

> In this case, it's not possible for people without military or scientific backgrounds to really have a grasp on the magnitude of stuff.

This isn't about the physics and tactics of nuclear weapons, though. This is about the basic idea that nuclear war would be the greatest disaster in human history and should be avoided at any cost, which by Reagan's own admission is something he hadn't entirely grasped until he watched a movie about it.

> Heck, even those with military backgrounds couldn't fathom a lot of things, judging from the parent's quote on the reaction from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

If the nation's top military personnel also hadn't previously grasped that nuclear war would be really bad, that makes the whole thing more terrifying, not less.

On the specific question of how to keep policymakers aware of the gravity of the nuclear decisions they could make, it notes there was a proposal floated at one point (half-jokingly, but only half) that the launch codes for American nuclear missiles, instead of being carried around in a briefcase, should instead be surgically implanted under the skin of one of the President's aides. That aide would then be responsible for carrying a butcher knife on their person at all times.

Why? That way, for the President to be able to launch the missiles and kill millions of people, he'd have to be willing to kill one person with his own hands first.