A military strategy (inaugurated in the United States in the 1950s) which uses the threat of a punitive response with nuclear weapons to deter aggression; a response of this kind.
Origin
1950s; earliest use found in The Times.
Definition of massive retaliation in US English:
massive retaliation
noun
historical
A military strategy (inaugurated in the United States in the 1950s) which uses the threat of a punitive response with nuclear weapons to deter aggression; a response of this kind.