

It’s not a euphism, it developed in the English language because the aristocracy, which could actually afford meat and ate it regularly, spoke french, therfore using french terms for the meat e.g. Porcine -> pork or Bœuf -> beef ) wheras the farmers who actually raised and dealt with the animals, but rarely if ever could actually afford to eat them, used anglo saxon to refer to them, hence this dichotomy in names for meat vs. animal in English.
It has nothing to do with being a euphism. It’s also evident that the cheapest meat, and pretty much the only one that even peasants could somewhat regularly afford, chicken, did not undergo this split.
He realised it was a system glitch, because it only detected a singular US nuclear missile.
He realised the US would never ever (intentionally) launch a nuclear attack on russia that was just a single missile. MAD meant they would either launch an all out devastating attack to eradicate everything, or launch no nukes at all. Anything in between those two made no tactical sense whatsoever, and, at least back then, the US millitary wasn’t run by complete morons.
(Also, in this case the risk of not responding is relatively low. A single missile, even if real, is relatively easy to intercept, and even when aimed at the capital, is not got going to take out the entire command structure and launch capabilities, so even if it turns out the attack was real, Russia would still be able to retaliate after it’s conclusion, which would not be the case with an all out attack)