Question

during the cold war, the united states and the soviet union implicitly recognized a doctrine of __________ destruction, meaning that they were deterred from attacking each other with nuclear weapons because doing so would mean their own destruction.
mutual assured

equal

balanced

human

Explanation:

The question is about the Cold War nuclear doctrine. The correct term is "mutual assured destruction" (MAD), which refers to the situation where both sides (US and Soviet Union) would be destroyed if they used nuclear weapons against each other. The other options ("equal", "balanced", "human") do not fit this specific Cold War nuclear deterrence concept.

Answer:

A. mutual assured