At least Carter and Harold Brown (his SecDef) recognized what congressional DemonRats had done to the country's defense capabilities, with NATO generals running out and writing The Third World War and Tom Clancy writing Red Storm Rising to give people a shout-out on what was about to happen if someone didn't take charge, fast, and turn the trends around.
Brown and Carter protected and fostered the Stealth program (F-117, B-2) and deployed lots of cruise and Pershing II missiles to counter the blackmail plot the Russians had going with their SS-20 mobile IRBM system that threatened Europe, and with which they hoped to drive a wedge between the US and the rest of NATO.
Can anyone on this board see Barky doing something like that?