I disagree with you one one point, being the military was allowed to deteriorate under Carter. Reagan is the one that got it back up to par.
“I disagree with you one one point, being the military was allowed to deteriorate under Carter. Reagan is the one that got it back up to par.”
We’re not far apart. The deterioration of the military began under Nixon as we started pulling out of Vietnam, then Ford, then Carter. This country has a habit of celebrating the ‘Peace Dividend’ with a lot more booze than we should (example, we virtually had no military when the Korean War started).
But with Afghanistan, Carter learned (the hard way, but did learn) that the Soviets meant business, and so, at the end of his term, he did move to massively increase defense spending. Carter even admitted to not understanding the Soviets (actually not trusting those who kept warning him), but to EVER hear a mistake admitted from the Democrats now, crickets.