@MicroSFF Too bad there wasn't a "thermonuclear war" in the story - it would have been a sequel to Asimov's "Silly Asses"*, where the very wise Naron the Rigellian, the Great One, was proven wrong.
* published in "Future Science Fiction", February 1958., and collections "Have You Seen This?" (1974.) and "Buy Jupiter and Other Stories" (1975.)