Reagan was cautious and the Bushes were reckless, bur that recklessness had much to do with the fall of the USSR and the idea that we were the one remaining superpower. People who called themselves Reaganites got caught up in that overconfidence just like people who didn’t.
Excuse me? The fall of the USSR was in 1989, a few months after the VP Mistake called GHW Bush became President. Reagan was in for 8 years prior, the idiot and unelectable Bush for a few months - are you telling me Bush was responsible for the fall of communism in the USSR?
In 1999, I was sitting on a doctor’s office while my wife had a prenatal appointment and I read a magazine article (I don’t remember the magazine or the author) that proposed a series of wars in the Middle East to create a Pax Americana and make the region safe for democracy and free trade.
Well, we got the wars.