Directly targeting cities is hardly necessary to destroy them. Can you imagine Baltimore surviving weapons targeting the Washington DC area? Many cities of any

Directly targeting cities is hardly necessary to destroy them. Can you imagine Baltimore surviving weapons targeting the Washington DC area? Many cities of any size are near important military/industrial/infrastructure targets, probably targeted by multiple warheads. Even if they're not on the first-strike list, nukes will be targeting dams, factories, energy hubs, transportation hubs, airports, seaports, communications and commercial centers, as well as military targets (for example, in the Puget Sound region, we are royally screwed, even if they just hit a subset of Naval Base Bremerton, Naval Base Everett, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Naval Base Bangor, the Indian Island weapons depot, Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Boeing's plants in Renton and Everett, the Port of Seattle, the Port of Tacoma, Seatac airport...the list goes on). The "minor" cities you mention are all seaports, and all have international airports capable of hosting military aircraft.