Question

John Foster Dulles is most closely associated with the?:

Answer 1

Correct answer:  E. policy of massive retaliation

Answer A is similar, but is incorrect, because at the time Dulles was proposing a policy of massive retaliation, the nuclear arms race had not yet escalated to the point of "mutually assured destruction."  The term "mutually assured destruction" (MAD) was not coined until 1962, by Donald Brennan, an analyst at the Hudson Institute.

Context/detail:

John Foster Dulles was Secretary of State under President Eisenhower.  He held the office from 1953 to 1959.  He wanted a change from what had been the "containment policy" which the US had followed during the Truman Administration, as recommended then by American diplomat George F. Kennan.   Dulles felt the containment approach put the United States in a weak position, because it only was reactive, trying to contain  communist aggression when it occurred.

Dulles sought to push America's policy in a more active direction; some have labeled his approach "brinksmanship."  In an article in LIFE magazine in 1956, Dulles said, "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art."  He wasn't afraid to threaten massive retaliation against communist enemy countries as a way of intimidating them.

Answer 2

John Foster Dulles is closely associated with the policy of mutually assured destruction. The correct option among all the options given in the question is option "a". It is actually a national security policy involving the military doctrine of full scale use of nuclear weapons by the attacker as well as the defender, resulting in mutual destruction.