A short list of Republicans this author likes. Says a lot to me.
Of course, Reagan finally bloodlessly defeated the USSR and Communism essentially by outspending it. This was the greatest bargain in the history of mankind.
Yet here the author is trying to dragoon Reagan in as support for his containment on the cheap theory!
Don't have the numbers right now, but defense spending, even with the war in Iraq, is vastly lower as a percentage of the federal budget and of the GDP than it was under any of these other GOP Presidents. So in any realist ic sense, GW is spending less than they did.