Yes - as I explained in my earlier post, Nixon's idea was that by calling the worldwide SAC alert, he would demonstrate nuclear resolve to the Soviet Union and that this would cause them to persuade North Vietnam to a negotiated solution to the Viet Nam war. But all it did was to increase global military tension as the UK and USSR both began to increase preparedness for a potential first strike...
This wasn't the only Cold War flap though.... There were quite a few, in fact. See
http://mt.sopris.net/mpc/military/false.alerts.html