IMHO, the US should classify the last 30 years as a "wild, drunken orgy" with respect to awareness of strategic issues and threats. There is a real reluctance to bring the cold war mentality, which we should never have dropped.
I think Washington is catching on to Chinese hegemonic dreams...you see a little of that from reps duing the congressional hearings on the UNOCAL bid by the Chicomms.
China knows it would lose in a nuke war with us...and lose badly...granted we wouldn't be in the best of shape and the whole world would undoubtedly suffer. However, China would be gone for good (so many mellenia of history gone in a mushroom cloud)...and we'd survive...they know this. All this "big talk" from the Chicomms is bluster and posturing.