Someone suggested Reagan as the most powerful of American presidents. When I suggested FDR and Ike, I didn't include Reagan (or indeed any 20th century presidents after Ike) because it was in the 60s that the Third World discovered how to use guerrilla warfare and manipulation of the First World Media to negate the power of nuclear weapons and modern air forces and navies and to demoralize First World (and later Soviet) draftee ground troops. For many practical purposes, this rendered American military power useless and in the aftermath of Vietnam even Reagan had to resort to Iran-contra trickery to fund small proxy wars in Central America. The fall of the ghost of Stalin's regime in Russia was primarily the result of internal changes within Russia rather than U.S. pressure. The power of the U.S. military was demonstrated against technologically primitive forces in Iraq in the Gulf War, but when GWB sent in the military to conquer and occupy Iraq he demonstrated just how difficult it still is for the U.S. to fight unconventional forces. When the Arab spring occurred, some thought this was a vindication of U.S. ideals, if not of U.S. military strength, but the result was ISIS. It should be noted, also, that from Vietnam through Iraq II and even against ISIS today, the U.S. has received little support from its NATO allies (this is so obvious that I won't go into detail). The days when the British fought a parallel war to Korea in Malaysia, and when Turkish and Colombian troops (the latter with extraordinary heroism) fought proudly in Korea are over. We couldn't even get the Turks to let us use their bases in the fight against ISIS without acquiescing in Turkish bombings against our informal Kurdish allies. As to the British, it will a long time before they will forget how they were used so cynically in the Iraq war. Power involves intelligent and principled leadership--the Bush admin provided us with ineffectual leadership, powerful on the outside, weak on the inside. China continues to rise and our natural ally, India, lacks any real confidence in us, with good reason.