MAD' is an acronym for 'Mutually Assured Destruction' which was a strategy used during the Cold War era. It was a policy of deterrence where both the United States and the Soviet Union had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other in the event of war. The word SORE is a four-letter word that means 'painful or aching'. It can be used to describe the emotional pain caused by the threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War.