With all due respect to those contributing to this thread, I must say that I believe that the Cold War never ended, just the names were changed on the Soviet/Russian side of the ticket. If anything, we have become even more vulnerable, to more groups and foreign powers, than heretofore...
The existence of MAD was best accepted, and played upon, by the Soviet Union, who did not have either the throw weight, accuracy in CEP (Circular Error of Probability), or reliability in either weapons or weapons delivery systems. From the very beginning, the Soviet Union's doctrine was to overcome quality with quantity. In time, they did improve their forces, but that was also dependent upon their economy, and their self perceived need for a military more able to confront the U.S. and its allies, and the ability to amass large forces to attain non-military needs.
MAD HELPED the Soviet Union, whereas it was an inhibitor upon U.S. foreign policy, the space race, and myriad other goals/projects that were to suffer, or be ended in the West... Truth be told, American foreign policy has long been a failure, due to diplomatic fear of the Soviet Union/Russia. Now, with mixed signals, no long range planning, and very poor leadership, the U.S. is stymied by it's own lack of vision.
It is unlikely that Soviet/Russian generals and field grade officers thought that they could achieve deliverable overwhelming force, able to thoroughly subdue or destroy the U.S. The Strategic Triad, now no longer mentioned, or maintained, was capable of surviving a first strike, and in so doing, able to actually reduce the Soviet Union/Russia to glowing embers... True, casualties would have been horendous, but the outcome was never in doubt...
When it became obvious that the intelligence agencies of the US had overestimated their power (the Soviet Union/Russia), both economic and military, something had to be done. A total collapse could not be allowed, therefore the Soviet Union/Russia was encouraged to self implode... Germany took the brunt, absorbing it's malnourished brother, and good, old fashioned "capitalism" was inculcated in the Eastern European countries. Russia, no longer on the world stage, revamped and revitalized itself, and is now just as great a danger as before, yet working through agents in other nations, and behind the scenes... Many thought that the KGB had gone out of service, but it simply moved people around, changed its name, and became even more adept at undermining the West...
Forgive my ramblings. Rant off...
CFL