"Well look at the big brain on Brad!"

BTW: I'm thoroughly enjoying On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Can't say for certain, but I would imagine US Senator/POTUS JFK and USN Ensign Jimmy Carter read this 1957 classic about an American nuclear-powered submarine looking for survivors of a nuclear Armageddon.
Mr Shute smoothly intertwined the global North-South divide, the Cold War, societal ennui, and environmental catastrophe all at once. I'll tell you how it ends. ;-)
The other two legs of the Cold War trilogy: The Manchurian Candidate (Richard Condon, 1959) and Fail-Safe (Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler, 1962).