We tried to make our threat credible by having planes armed and ready and actually in the air at all times in case our side needed to retaliate for something they did. The museum makes clear the decades of effort and great expense that went into maintaining such a ready response. Knowing very close to zero about what we could do and what they could do and tons of relevant details, it seems to me that we can't really know if it was all worth it or not. I imagine all sorts of experts can line up for and against the idea of what was done.
There are times when risk and mental inflexibility just do not allow us to deviate from our plans, well-conceived or not. I am listening to The Year that Changed the World by Michael Meyer. It is about 1989. The Americans were not paying attention when Gorbachev made it clear that it was time for some changes, when Poland and Hungary began to take him at his word. The Americans charged with staying alert for Russian tricks felt they were too smart to be lured into dropping their guard just because of some language so different from the previous 50 years and more as to be unbelievable. It took a while for the new situation to be grasped (and trusted) by all.
It does seem as though the matter of dollars, rubles and expense lay behind much of the change. A Pole was quoted as saying, "40 years of Communism and we still have no toilet paper". When the Hungarian government decided to stop the bother and expense of patrolling their border to keep citizens from fleeing into Austria, they explained their 'outlandish' decision with the statement that all that border stuff was simply more than they could afford.
