If you try to blow me up I will blow you up. Nobody wins, so don't try.
Ronald Reagan
It began in the 1940s at the start of the Cold War.
Mutual Assured Destruction and proxy wars.
mutual assured destruction, espionage, detente.
It ensures (hopefully) that both nations are too frightened to launch their nuclear munitions.
MAD - Mutual Assured Destruction
The level of nuclear weapons required to completely destroy both sides in any war making use of such weapons.
Massive Retaliation
Mutual assured destruction
Preventing other countries with nuclear munitions from using them (nuclear deterrence, mutual assured destruction). Or, obviously, to end the world
It was a standoff called MAD-mutual assured destruction. Who ever attacked first would also be destroyed. MAD is just what it was---insane.
Massive retaliation. The policy was called MAD- Mutual Assured Destruction. If you blow up my country, I will blow up your country.