War and peace. Jimmy Carter's aides called it “the Tolstoi issue.” The incumbent hammered at it endlessly. The differences between the candidates were “stark,“ he said: Trigger-happy Ronald Reagan would lead America into war; he, the president, would be prudent and safeguard the peace.

The economy. Ronald Reagan blamed the Carter administration for rising unemployment and recordsetting inflation. The free-spending Democrats would lead us into a depression, Reagan warned; the thrifty Republicans would stop inflation and “put America back to work.”

Yet not once during the long campaign did either of the main candidates mention the link between the two. Not once did they discuss how the military budget affects the civilian economy. The American electorate was offered a choice between spending a little more on the arms race or spending a lot more. Carter and Reagan were as one, though, in assuming that military arms equal national security and that arms spending equals a strong economy. In fact, both assumptions are wrong.