Please help me understand this!

I can't understand the underlined sentence below. A little patience, etc... might have come a far way??

(The author brings in Tuchman's argument in order to show that US's Iraq war has similarities with those 4 foolish decisions or policies of famous historical moments.)

"Barbara W. Tuchman, in her fine book The March of Folly, gives us some leads. She studies Troy in the Battle of Troy, the Renaissance Popes during the Protestant Reformation, England and the American Revolution, and the US in Vietnam, and concludes that their actions were simply foolish.(endnote 3)

(Endnote 3) Visitors today to the ruins of Troy will find a model of the famous wooden horse, and can judge for themselves the wisdom of letting such a thing within their walls. In the other three cases, a little patience, flexibility, willingness to listen, and real dialogue might have come a far way. But then we might have had neither economic growth and individualizing democracy as we know them, if we accept that both are related to the worldview of Protestantism, nor the end of the beginning of the US republic, nor the beginning of the end of the US empire."

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