The phrase "bigger bang for the buck", first heard in the USA in 1954, was used to describe what?

Answer 1

Policy to use nuclear weapons (not a large regular army) to threaten the USSR
It was coined by US president Eisenhower's Secretary of State, Charles Erwin Wilson, to summarise the reasons for the "New Look" policy. It was preceded by "more bounce for the ounce", an advertising slogan used in 1950 to market Pepsi.