His statement was generally interpreted to mean that, if the Soviet Union or Communist China were to attack any country of the 'Free World', the United States would strike back with nuclear weapons - not necessarily in the theatre of war, but possibly in the Russian or Chinese heartlands. Such interpretations were subsequently strengthened, for example in an article by Vice President Richard Nixon in The New York Times on 14 March 1954: "Rather than let the Communists nibble us to death all over the world in little wars, we would rely in the future primarily on our massive mobile retaliatory power which we could use in our discretion against the major source of aggression at times and places that we choose."