Did US and Soviet nuclear war policies allow for a pause?

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Such points indeed existed, which is one of the reasons both sides always hung on to long range bombers even though ICBMs and SLBMs would be much more rapid to reach their targets.
Bombers would regularly loiter for hours at locations outside enemy airspace. In fact during the 1950s and into the 1960s both sides (and especially the USAF) would have aircraft loaded with nuclear weapons over the north polar region 24/7, refueled every few hours by tankers so they were always ready to proceed to their preselected targets in the USSR at a moment's notice were the order ever given.
Later, after several accidents that led to the loss (usually temporary, but some were never recovered) of nuclear weapons (no nuclear detonations, through luck as well as design, but nuclear material was leaked into the countryside in some places as bomb cases cracked)) and improved early warning systems that allowed longer response times, the practice was abandoned and the aircraft kept on hot alert at forward bases instead where they could take off given a few minutes' warning.
From there they'd fly to basically the same points and await the positive launch order as described in your movie.
That the officer in question was a naval commander is pretty much irrelevant, the duty for that function rotates between the branches.

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