Yep. Reagan was viewed as a war-monger by many. I remember because I remember my dad saying it...
We had to have faith in Reagan before we could vote for him, because we knew that he was going to take on the Soviet Empire, and try to defeat it, it was an incredibly risky goal, but we supported him because the horror and stress of the seemingly permanent Cold war and enslavement of so much of the world’s population and territory, had to be brought to an end if possible.
Once he was elected, he started challenging, probing, he was running small operations around the globe and stirring up a hornet’s nest of riots, demonstrations and anti-NATO/American terror attacks in Europe.
It was very tense times and the survivalist movement was in full flower.