Nuclear Strategy and Diplomacy - Massive retaliation

"Local defense will always be important. But there is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty land power of the Communist world. Local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power. A potential aggressor must know that he cannot always prescribe battle conditions that suit him.…

"The way to deter aggression is for the free community to be willing and able to respond vigorously at places and with means of its own choosing."

—Secretary of State John Foster Dulles at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York City, 12 January 1954—