I will freely concede that Goldwater was not “head AND shoulders” above Reagan. ;^)
As for the “war hawk” slur, it was Goldwater who warned of the dangers of a ground war in Vietnam without strategic support,i.e.,interdicting Soviet supplies to Hanoi by mining Haiphong etc. Johnson wanted to avoid standing up to the USSR.
It was for this that Goldwater was smeared with the warmonger label.
Well, for my part, I regard “dove” as more of a slur than “hawk”. The liberals’ lies w.r.t. Goldwater were and are a national disgrace.