The Washington Post Friday, July 4, 1986 A15  
Would you believe, on the Fourth of July, that the pursuit of liberty is taking Americans toward the envious contemplation of Fidel CastroÛªs Cubans and King GeorgeÛªs Hessians as models for the kind of allies that the United States now needs in the world?</br></br>This administration, you see, has the containment of Soviet power very much in mind. Some parts of it also have very much in mind rolling back Soviet power, at least rolling it back from places where it was settled in the post-Vietnam years. But who is going to do the fighting that these tasks may require if the locals canÛªt manage on their own?</br></br>The problem, for those who accept administration premises, is that Vietnam soured most Americans on foreign interventions. Richard Nixon then tried to rely on regional powers; the shahÛªs demise showed the limits here. Jimmy Carter organized a search for diplomatic solutions, and fell short. Ronald Reagan has applied American muscleÛÓindirectlyÛÓto the containment-rollback policy that sometimes goes under the name of the Reagan Doctrine; nowhere, however, is success in sight.</br></br>Earlier, the Reagan administration did launch interventions. Grenada was a small success, Lebanon a medium-sized failure. But together they had a larger, unanticipated effect. They led Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to lay down what has become administration law on interventions: the only ones permissible are the quick sure things. In practice, that means no more interventions, though accidents and alarms can never be ruled out.</br></br>The Reagan Doctrine plus the Weinberger Doctrine makes for a truly bad matchup of ends and means. The first promises active pursuit of ambitious goals, and the second ensures a measure of self-restraint that, if it were being shown by Jimmy Carter, would be denounced by the Reaganites as a sellout. The resulting policy tells friends and foes alike that, for all its bold talk, this administration will go only so far.