Learn how the nuclear arms race between the US and Soviet Union grew out of control in this clip from The Bomb. With the power of the hydrogen bomb, president Eisenhower realized a nuclear attack is not survivable. The only way to protect America was to prevent an attack in the first place: a policy called deterrence. The US Air Force was ready to meet any hostile move with a massive nuclear strike designed to eliminate the Soviet Union as a nation. The military services and weapons designers kept building more nuclear weapons to the point that the stockpile was more than would ever be needed.