»US media propaganda refuses to show the real Reagan?«

Reagan's fervent support for right-wing governments in Central America was one of the defining foreign policies of his administration, and the fact that death squads associated with those governments murdered tens of thousands of civilians surely must be included in any reckoning of Reagan's successes and failures.

But a search of major U.S. newspapers in the Nexis news database turns up the phrase "death squad" only five times in connection with Reagan in the days following his death--twice in commentaries (Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/6/04; Chicago Tribune, 6/8/04) and twice in letters to the editor (San Francisco Chronicle, 6/8/04; L.A. Times, 6/8/04). Only one news article found in the search (L.A. Times, 6/6/04) considered the death squads an important enough part of Reagan's legacy to be worth mentioning. The three broadcast networks, CNN and Fox didn't mention death squads at all, according to Nexis. Nor were any references found in the transcripts of the broadcast networks to the fact that Reagan's policy of supporting Islamicist insurgents against the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan led to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

The Reagan administration's friendly policy towards Saddam Hussein was also a neglected media topic. During the Reagan years, the U.S. offered significant support to Iraq, including weapons components, military intelligence, and even some of the ingredients for manufacturing biological weapons like anthrax (Newsweek, 9/23/02).

Reagan promulgated policies that freed millions from Soviet domination while allowing and encouraging the most brutal of scoundrel generals to repress their own peoples, in many cases involving massacres of whole Native communities.

Reagan’s administration unleashed extremely militant elements of the Central American right wing, working through national military officers of various ranks, under coordinated, severely repressive wartime measures for nearly a decade of extreme brutality.

Later, President Bill Clinton appropriately apologized to the people of Guatemala for any U.S. involvement in the terror of their civil war and the way Indian communities were targeted.