How else does devalorization of overaccumulated capital on the scale now required occur? Sure, the financial capital gets burned up (is it now over $25 trillion?), but the massive gluts in the real sector still need to be brought down to the point a new round of accumulation can get going.
Last time, yes, 1939-45 was a necessary way of clearing away all the economic deadwood, from London to Dusseldorf to Tokyo.
Nukes or not, Dennis, it's times like these that serious geopolitical games get underway and internecine tensions between capitalists and their states become sharper.