The revolutionaries called upon the United States for support. It offered them assurances of backing in the event of victory; however, no actual combat support was forthcoming. The CIA appeared to have lost all its arms caches. Khrushchev at last quipped that American support might be compared to the support of a rope suspending a hanged man; i.e., the Americans would encourage the Hungarians to hang themselves by revolting but would make no move to assist them. As a result of this American fiasco the government adopted a policy of never communicating with countries behind the Iron Curtain but always approaching the Soviet Union first. The gates between east and west were resolutely shut. The cold war was on.