Against the backdrop of revolutionary socialism, capitalism is as American as apple pie. Without it, even a Reaganite like Vice President Mike Pence begins to gaze at the bottom line rather than his navel (“The free market has been sorting it out and America’s been losing,” the vice president recently said).

Against the backdrop of an expansionary Soviet empire, middle America will doggedly support a bloody, decade-long civil war in Indochina. Without it, it is instinctively suspect of foreign intervention and intolerant of protracted conflict.

Against the backdrop of Soviet involvement in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, immigrants are would-be entrepreneurs fleeing dictatorships and banana republics. Without it, they are merely … immigrants.

Against the backdrop of official atheism, Russians are a godless menace. Without it, they are white Christians.