The Presidency: A Global Cowboy Plays It Cool

The Falkland Islands crisis has become for Ronald Reagan an intense seminar on geopolitics and war, focusing questions of stunning clarity on almost every aspect of the exercise of world power. Reagan, derided a year ago by Leonid Brezhnev as a global cowboy, has emerged as the man who repeatedly cautioned his Government in secret meetings, "Don't shoot from the hip."

When the crisis began, the State Department recommended the immediate recall of the U.S. Ambassador to Buenos Aires and cancellation of all contracts between the nations. Reagan was bothered by such an...