In 1981, after surviving an assassination attempt and spending two weeks in the hospital, President Ronald Reagan came to believe that God spared him from an assassination attempt so that he could serve a higher purpose. That purpose was to end the Cold War and to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation.

After leaving the hospital, President Reagan penned a letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev expressing a desire for “a meaningful and constructive dialogue which will assist us in fulfilling our joint obligation to find lasting peace.”

In the years following 1981, President Reagan worked with Brezhnev’s successor Mikhail Gorbachev to do just that. The Soviet Union and the United States committed to multiple treaties, including the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation. Reagan’s recovery cemented him as a strong leader, a far cry from his predecessor President Jimmy Carter. It was only a decade later that President Reagan’s goal of ending the Cold War was fulfilled with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

We may never know what would have happened if a would-be assassin did not take aim at Reagan on that fateful day. But we do know that the world looks different because of how that day impacted President Reagan.

Unfortunately, like that day in 1981, it is another sad day in America. At a rally in Pennsylvania, a deranged individual opened fire on a crowd of onlookers, and for the first time in over 40 years, attempted to assassinate a U.S. president.

This will certainly be a defining moment for President Trump

A bullet grazed President Donald Trump’s ear. Secret Service agents used their bodies to shield the former President. A stream of blood dripped down President Trump’s face as he defiantly pumped a fist into the crowd, breaking through the huddle of Secret Service agents shouting, “fight.”

This will certainly be a defining moment for President Trump. The strength that he displayed contrasts deeply with President Joe Biden, who has been struggling to maintain his own party’s support since a poor debate performance only a few weeks ago. In just one simple gesture, President Trump sent a message not only to his political foes, but to allies and adversaries on the world stage that Trump is ready to, quite literally, fight.

But if President Trump is elected in November, he will be re-entering the world stage on a very different footing than when he was first elected in 2016. Since leaving office, the United States withdrew forces from Afghanistan but not before some final moments of chaos claimed the lives of 13 U.S. Marines. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the war continues today, with no clear end in sight. The United States has struggled to find peace in the Middle East after a terrorist attack by Hamas ignited war with Israel. Meanwhile, tensions continue to mount with China over Taiwan, with Biden claiming — on no less than four occasions — that the U.S. will defend Taiwan.

From day one, President Trump has invoked President Reagan’s motto of “peace through strength.” But if President Reagan’s brush with death tells us anything, it’s that President Trump may be even more inclined to seek peace and reimagine the role of the United States in international affairs.

The near-death experience may drive President Trump to engage directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, a goal that even prior to the assassination attempt was one of his top priorities. President Trump may pressure European allies to pay more for their own defense and re-envision the United States’ role in NATO. While President Trump has rarely discussed his plans for the war in Israel, he may feel similarly driven to end the war, perhaps by leveraging and expanding the Abraham Accords, which started under his administration. Finally, President Trump would be wise to ensure that competition with China does not veer into conflict.

President Reagan remarked in his autobiography that, “Perhaps having come so close to death made me feel I should do whatever I could in the years God had given me to reduce the threat of nuclear war.” While today’s global situation is markedly distinct from the Cold War, the threat of great power war and the use of nuclear weapons remains uncomfortably real. We should all hope that, should he win in November, President Trump’s own near-death experience may drive him to find peace in our age.