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I don't know that people have ever risked millions of lives like that as would be the case here.
Nobody knew if the atmosphere would burn when the first bomb was tested.
The US did some maneuvers, including the Cuba crisis, that could have triggered nuclear war.
Global warming puts humanity and nature as we know it at an existential risk.
The housing crisis could have led to the collapse of the world economy which would have risked huge famines.
WW2
Keeping the risks of smoking or soft drinks secret.
Outsourcing pharmaceutical production lines to China.
Yeah sorry I don't think any of these are comparable to knowing that as a direct consequence within hours of your decision it is likely that a major city will get hit and that will kill millions instantly. The first one is also false in all but the weakest possible sense of it never being possible to really know whether anything at all including pink elephants bursting out won't happen before you've done something new.
I believe the actual picture also is a lot more bleak when it comes to successful defense. Interceptor success rate is fairly low, time is limited and no major breakthroughs are predicted for future versions. They're not presented as ever being useful for defending against a near-peer adversary launching a full scale attack.
How is the USA going to contain China? The way they behave suggests to me that they plan on withstanding a nuclear attack.
How many reactors does the EU have to breed plutonium?
How many uranium sources do exist that the US cannot convince to sanction the EU?
How many years does it take to create the nukes for a full scale attack?
Nukes are a nice idea but for the coming years they won't be there to solve any problem. The EU has to focus on resolving the conflicts with reason.
I've seen nothing that suggests USA plans to withstand a nuclear attack from China. I wouldn't expect them be either because they can't.
How exactly the capability can be developed when adversaries don't want you to is certainly something that needs to be thought about. One part of the puzzle is France that has been signaling they are willing to provide a nuclear umbrella for Europe and just announced some partner countries as well as the expansion of their stockpiles.
I of course don't disagree that conflicts need to be resolved with reason if possible but developing a nuclear deterrence doesn't exclude doing that.