You missed Reagan’s point about giving Star Wars to the Russians, as most everyone else did back then. You cannot back a bear into a corner, without giving him a way out. If you do box him in a corner, he will attack with his claws, just because he is a bear.
No, I didn’t miss Reagan’s finesse as he handled the American media, and the American left, the weak isolationists, and the Soviet Union.
Reagan didn’t give the SDI to the Soviet Empire, but he did actually challenge then and harass them all over the world, all while facing incredible attacks from the naysayers and those crying out that he was going to destroy the world and end life on earth.
Ronald Reagan was incredibly aggressive, and he was everywhere, and the military build up was at war time levels.
By the late 1970s, many of us anticipated the Communists invading in the mid 1980s, but Reagan’s war time footing closed that window, and resulted in the collapse of that evil empire.