Any use of nuclear weapons has to be cleared by the "National Command Authority", which IIRC is the President ("Lil' Georgie" Bush), the Vice President ("Shlong" Cheney) and the Secretary of Defense ("Rummy" Rumsfeld). There are (and especially were during the Cold War) of course standing contingency orders, but I don't see any reason whatsoever for them to have relaxed their standards at all from Cold War era standards, and in fact think that there are many fewer weapons and conditions where they might be deployed without NCA approval.
Lancer,
These days most U.S. Divisions are commanded by Brigadier (ie one star) Generals, while Brigades are usualy commanded by Colonels. Don't ask me why. Also, I strongly suspect your story about the Americans giving the Germans tactical nukes was misinterpreted. The tactical nukes were put into place in Germany etc. in order to show (as you said) our determination to go all out defending Germany if necessary. The rationale was that we would not allow the enemy to simply overrun our weapons, and would fire them in a use or lose situation.
Lancer,
These days most U.S. Divisions are commanded by Brigadier (ie one star) Generals, while Brigades are usualy commanded by Colonels. Don't ask me why. Also, I strongly suspect your story about the Americans giving the Germans tactical nukes was misinterpreted. The tactical nukes were put into place in Germany etc. in order to show (as you said) our determination to go all out defending Germany if necessary. The rationale was that we would not allow the enemy to simply overrun our weapons, and would fire them in a use or lose situation.
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