America's Foreign Policy Practice Exam 2025 – Comprehensive Test Prep

The strategy of massive retaliation, which emerged during the Cold War, was characterized by a doctrine that suggested the United States would respond to any act of aggression, particularly by the Soviet Union, with overwhelming nuclear force. The rationale behind this strategy was to deter adversaries from initiating conflicts by making the potential costs exponentially greater than any conceivable benefit through the threat of total annihilation.

The major flaw of this strategy lies in the inherent risk it posed of leading to total destruction in the event of a conflict. Given that the doctrine relied on the assumption that the threat of immediate and overwhelming nuclear retaliation would deter aggression, this left little room for measured responses or conflict de-escalation. In a scenario where a conventional conflict could escalate unexpectedly, the policy could inadvertently push both sides into a nuclear confrontation due to miscalculations, miscommunications, or irrational decisions borne out of fear and a desire to maintain deterrence. Thus, the doctrine of massive retaliation, while aimed at providing security, paradoxically heightened the existential threat of nuclear war by positioning the world on a precarious precipice of destruction.

The other aspects of the answers provided do not encompass the crux of the massive retaliation strategy's risks and limitations in the same profound way. Options such as encouraging diplomatic