The cold war officially ended two weeks ago with the collapse of the coup in Moscow and the subsequent rout of the Communist Party by reformers bearing the twin banners of democracy and Mother Russia. If it had been a hot war, some soldier might have rushed into an American general's tent, crying, "Sir, Moscow has fallen!" As it was, there was just the quiet realization that the world had changed utterly and that where East-West relations are concerned, the past was no longer prologue.
For two generations, Americans have largely defined their country and, to some extent, themselves in terms...