president george h. w. bush, reagan's successor, tried to temper feelings of triumphalism lest there be a backlash in the soviet union, but the palpable sense of victory in the cold war was a success that republicans felt validated the aggressive foreign policies reagan had espoused. as haynes johnson, one of his harshest critics admitted, "his greatest service was in restoring the respect of americans for themselves and their own government after the traumas of vietnam and watergate, the frustration of the iran hostage crisis and a succession of seemingly failed presidencies".