Yeah that was something I didn't get about this, and it's similar to what I've read about the Army's attempts (mostly through creating special forces units) to stay relevant in the 21st century when nearly every hostile area we occupy has already been turned into a crater by the Air Force in conjunction with the Navy.I mean, if you want to take out a "heavy water factory" (in '61! SRSLY!) and you happen to be the Army, you push a button. It's done in under ten minutes. You don't have to rely on a team of grunts being able to keep a trash can full of plutonium out of sight while they schlep across the Sudetenland in the dark. Even their saying "nuke'em til they glow then shoot 'em in the dark" was lifted from the Strategic Air Command. Yeah, the Army Special Forces had visions of being relevant, but American SF in general weren't particularly relevant in the '60s.
You gotta sympathize, though. It's not like the Navy was irrelevant in WWII, but it was a ground battle. When it wasn't, the Air Force was the Army. Give it ten years and all of a sudden it's all subs and bombers. Meanwhile, SAC and the Navy exist to prevent war, while the Army exists to get bogged down in Domino Effect quagmires. I'd goddamn bedazzle my arsenal with nukes if I were the Army in '61, even if they were only atomic.