Feb. 6 will be the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan‘s birth.

More than any other leader, Reagan is responsible for making national security a pillar of the conservative movement. He understood that all of America’s freedoms are contingent on the presence of a strong military to defend them.

But what does that mean today? What would Reagan say about defense spending in this age of runaway deficits and unfathomable debt? Would he throw his lot in with those who want to reduce defense spending even though the nation is still at war?

What would he say about the war in Afghanistan? Would he support those who think it is too expensive and not worth the fight? We can never know for certain what Reagan would say or do today. But we can learn from what he said and did and draw some definite conclusions about what he believed.

On national defense, the lessons are clear. Reagan came to office after years of neglect of our armed forces and launched a military buildup that we live off to this day. He let the threats, not the bottom line, determine defense spending. He revived the B-1 bomber program that President Carter canceled and initiated many other defense programs. He famously told his military planners, “Defense is not a budget issue. You spend what you need.”

And by the time he left office, he boosted defense spending 35 percent.

If not for Reagan‘s military buildup, we would not have had the advanced weaponry and excellent fighting force that won the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars with historically low U.S. casualties.

Nothing in Reagan‘s presidency even hints that he would support drastically cutting the defense budget. Yes, he would have wanted the Pentagon to operate efficiently and find savings whenever possible. But there is no evidence he would have mortgaged America’s future by slowing military modernization or reducing the size of the armed forces exclusively to save money.

Nor is there evidence from Reagan‘s presidency that he would have wanted us to do anything else in Afghanistan but win. Seared by the demoralizing loss of the Vietnam War, Reagan said time and time again that America should win its wars. His entire approach to the Soviet Union was to bury detente and “roll back” communism. That was what the Reagan Doctrine was all about. And when he used military force, he did so decisively, as in Grenada.