But an accord between Solidarity and the Kremlin forged by the Holy See would violate the claims and trust of the Reagan Administration, which spoke of the “evil empire” in order to spend $2.2 trillion on new weapons, including the Star Wars initiative, a fanciful technology supposed to vaporize any Soviet missiles approaching the United States from outer space.11 What’s more, John Paul II’s unwanted efforts would undermine the CIA’s anticipated victory in the Cold War. The Soviets, after all, had stumbled into “their own Vietnam,”
