In terms of foreign policy, the two Eisenhower administrations were marked by a policy of containment and firmness before the Soviet Union, in a context clearly dominated by the Cold War. This had among its immediate consequences an expansion of the arms race with the Soviet Union, and the consolidation and expansion of the American nuclear armament. This situation generated in the world a state of permanent fear before the possibility that either of the two powers pressed the button that would unleash a nuclear attack.