a nation (the U.S. or the Soviet Union) could have in the past. As Ambrose writes with respect to Reagan and the lingering lesson of Vietnam:
The failure of containment in Indochina led to another basic shift in attitude toward America's role in the world. . . . It was a general realization that, given the twin restraints of fears of provoking a Russian nuclear strike and America's reluctance to use her full military power, there was relatively little the U.S. could accomplish by force of arms. President Reagan showed an awareness of these limits in Poland, Afghanistan, and even Central America, and in withdrawing from Lebanon (xv).
However, it is also true that Reagan tried to install a harebrained missile defense in the heavens, saw the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," and referred to the Vietnam nightmare as a "noble" war. The change in Lebanon policy was a matter of public horror at the Marine deaths from a terrorist bomb
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