massive retaliation
- a strategy of military counterattack that involves the use of nuclear weapons.
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Origin of massive retaliation
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
massive retaliation
The doctrine that the best way to deter aggression is to threaten a potential aggressor with devastation by atomic bombs (see also atomic bomb). See hawks and doves.)
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.