Intellectuals of the time loved to make fun of and satirize MAD. But the fact is it worked.

Intellectuals were more terrified than merely 'making fun' of Mutually Assured Destruction. Their satirising efforts where aimed at stemming the nuclear arms race and nuclear weapon proliferation.

'It worked' only in the sense that cooler heads prevailed to prevent accidental holocaust[0] and that humanity was incredibly lucky[1]. That this occurred is more than a minor miracle.

[0] https://www.wjperryproject.org/books [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00963402156111...