> The apocalypse is delayed, permanently.
Until it isn't. The Cuban Missile Crisis could have put a very permanent end to it all, hadn't cooler minds prevailed, but that was a binary moment. There's absolutely no guarantee the coin won't flip to tails the next toss.
It must be quite depressing to live life always wondering what could have been.
The Cuban missile crises I would say was a lot less precarious than Able Archer or the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm alert - which was averted, by, ahem - an engineer!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...