Comment by oidar

Read the whole article. And peruse the oral history here: https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Paul_Baran - the genesis was most definitely related to the cold war.

"A preferred alternative would be to have the ability to withstand a first strike and the capability of returning the damage in kind. This reduces the overwhelming advantage by a first strike, and allows much tighter control over nuclear weapons. This is sometimes called Second Strike Capability."