I’m not sure how the lessons of the 50s and 60s apply to the war on terror. M.A.D. was based on symmetric warfare. The GWOT is assymetric. The AQs can certainly hit us with a nuke, but who or what are we supposed to target in response? Some prime goat-herding real estate in rural Pakistan? What if the guys who set off the bomb are actually Chechens or Somalis or American Muslims?
Do we tell the “sponsors of terror” such as the Saudis, Syrians, Iranians, and Pakistanis that if the US ever suffers a nuclear terrorist attack we will retaliate by nuking their major cities and military bases?

I guess what it boils down to is, how can you deter people who have nothing to lose and nothing to defend but their ideology? We probably have enough nuclear weapons to hold the entire “Muslim world” hostage. But I get the impression that the people who are fighting us would let the rest of the umma fry if they thought it would advance the cause.