You don't have to have lived through the Cold War to understand that...just be able to actually read and analyze a number of sources (to include documents from the actual period and not just retrospective studies).
That said, I think it's quite possible to argue successfully that the US has never really HAD a grand strategy of any sort (prior to containment...which was something of a patchwork strategy that ended up working) aside from the 19th century concept of Manifest Destiny...and even that seems more clear in retrospect than it did during the time in question and was driven more by economic considerations than an actual political agenda. Our two year cycle of "perpetual revolution" was alive and well even then, and that has always hindered our ability to form any sort of lasting strategic consensus. I don't honestly see that changing, and we don't have the sort of civil service structure that would allow for them to carry the strategic torch (as it were).
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