Think Again: Ronald Reagan - | Foreign Policy

The Gipper wasn't the warhound his conservative followers would have you think.

Sure, Reagan spent boatloads -- some $2.8 trillion all told -- on the military. And yes, he funneled money and guns to anti-communist rebels like the Nicaraguan Contras and Afghan mujahideen, while lecturing Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down that wall.

But on the ultimate test of hawkdom -- the willingness to send U.S. troops into harm's way -- Reagan was no bird of prey. He launched exactly one land war, against Grenada, whose army totaled 600 men. It lasted two days. And his only air war -- the 1986 bombing of Libya -- was even briefer........ - Think Again: Ronald Reagan

Think Again: Ronald Reagan - By Peter Beinart Foreign Policy
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