a. massive retaliation
Massive retaliation was the foreign policy plan created by John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State.
The goal of massive retaliation was to build up the US's nuclear arsenal to be more ready for nuclear war than the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union attacked, Dulles wanted to be able to unleash any and all weapons necessary to destroy the Soviet Union. This program included nuclear testing, weapons development, and military posts in Asia.