Bruce Springsteen had spent the ten years previous to "Born in the USA" proving that he had a head on his shoulders; on "Born in the USA", he proved that he had a sense of irony and humor as well as his  notorious sense of drama.  The title track was co-opted by Reagan in one of  the lowest moments of an extremely low presidency.  It was vastly misread  all over the map--liberals called it patriotic jingoism, conservatives  called it anti-US propaganda.  It was, of course, neither, but the story of  one Viet Nam Vet who gets lost in the shuffle after the war.  The anthemic  chorus is highly ironic, indeed, but it's not mocking anybody: It's just  angry.  This is angry music, for all of its big beat and hooky melody; it's  not the comedown that some of his fans thought it was, but truly  intelligent rock music as had not been made since the days of Dylan and the  Band.