Eisenhower's New Look Strategy - Nuclear War

The threat of nuclear annihilation from the very early days of the Eisenhower years was not some dog whistle. In a famous speech before the Council on Foreign Relations, in January of 1953, John Foster Dulles introduced the phrase that would define the decade, massive retaliation. The US needed overseas bases to ensure West Europe stuck with the US and furthermore, the US needed emphasis on the capability of inflicting massive retaliatory damage by offensive striking power. McGeorge Bundy, who had been JFK's National Security Advisor in 1988, wrote a history of this period that depicts how Eisenhower felt.