Answer:
"Massive retaliation" was a nuclear deterrence policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War. It differed from conventional war policy in several key ways:
Scale: Massive retaliation policy aimed to deter potential aggressors by threatening a massive nuclear response to any aggression against the United States or its allies. The response was intended to be overwhelming, with the use of all available nuclear weapons, rather than a proportional or limited response.
Preemption: Massive retaliation policy allowed for the preemptive use of nuclear weapons if the United States believed an attack was imminent, rather than waiting to absorb the first strike and then responding with conventional force.
Cost: Massive retaliation policy was intended to be cost-effective by minimizing the need for large standing armies and costly conventional weapons systems.
Massive retaliation policy represented a shift in strategic thinking from conventional war-fighting to nuclear deterrence, and it reflected the reality of the Cold War in which the United States and the Soviet Union were the world's two superpowers, each possessing a large nuclear arsenal.
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