Which of the following is the best explanation of deterrent as it applies to US foreign policy during the Cold War? The Soviet Union would be discouraged from attacking the United States because Americans would retaliate by destroying the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons Americans chose not to build up their nuclear arsenal out of fear that the Soviets would take it as a threat The Soviet Union and the United States began competing with one another to have the strongest standing army so one wouldn't attack the other The United States had the largest navy in the world and was worried about an amphibious attack from the Soviet Union

In the Cold War, once both the United States and the Soviet Union had atomic weapons, the two sides were in a tense standoff. Each side developed a larger and larger arsenal of weapons, knowing that provoking a war would mean mutually assured destruction. Having more weapons and defense spending, in the eyes of military planners, was a way of deterring the other side from daring an attack.

John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, pushed for this kind of approach. Dulles wasn't afraid to threaten massive retaliation against communist enemy countries as a way of intimidating them and deterring the communist side from pursuing any sort of attack on the United States.