Leftist lunacy

Yep . . . it reminds me of how surprised all those ardent believing liberals were after a triumphant Joseph Stalin turned on them and began exiling his no longer useful liberal 'Useful Idiots' to gulags or letting them simply starve to death.

Or how Mao eviscerated the red guard leadership once they finished the dirty work.

Aye. The only reason I resort to the USSR so much as a good back example is because during one part of the 'Cold War' I was a nuclear missile technician and the targeted areas of our 'boomer' submarine was USSR territory. I had a lot of time to contemplate things.

I remember fear of nuclear war was much more pronounced and we were further away from it than we are now.

This is true. Nowadays more of our outright enemies or probable future enemies have got hostile nuclear capabilities. It's a game changer.