Since you obviously did not read through the GWU archives, which is the most important source I’ve looked through, here are direct links to alternative material that will not require you to put forth the effort of actually researching the question before making a judgment:

Los secretos de la guerra sucia continental de la dictadura

Wikipedia has some notes on Reagan’s reversal of Carter’s cessation of military aid to Argentina

State Terrorist

State Terrorism by Frederick H. Gareau

New York Times

The Nation

You may want to consider visiting a library to study the question further. The information on historical events found online, while abundant, is often insufficient. Rather than allowing the internet to think for us, we should not be afraid to actually study up ourselves.

Many labels apply to me: Husband, Father, Roman Catholic, American, Republican, American Conservative, Poor Sinner, E-bay enthusiast, etc. Nothing wrong with labels as long as they are accurate. I submit that it is useful for all of us to think of what labels apply to us. If we don’t like some of the labels perhaps we can change them by our actions.

Donald,

I linked you to two posts in which are several links to the declassified documents at GWU. Now, I can’t force you to read them, but if you don’t, then I refuse to any more of your assertions.

Michael an unexamined life is a terrible thing. You are a leftist deal with it.

I don’t live my life by a label. Do you?

No Michael, Reagan made the decision that it was better for America and for the people of Central America that the Communist forces be defeated. Central America, largely due to the incompetence of the Carter administration , was already in flames when he came into office. You of course ignore that the forces on the left were also not shy about killing innocent civilians. Civil wars are rarely pretty and when political ideology is tossed into the mix they are always going to be very bloody. The alternative of course would have been to do nothing and let more Cubas be created with all the deaths of innocents and refugees that such a process would have entailed.

Your remark about western capitalism is telling. No Michael it was all about freedom, something in very short supply whereever the forces of the extreme left have triumphed. Reagan recognized that Marxism was a dangerous threat to human liberty and he took action to stop it. The fact that innocents died in accomplishing this goal no more stains the memory of Reagan than the fact that millions of innocents died in stopping fascism and Japanese imperialism stains the memories of FDR and Churchill. Reagan is great for many reasons, but his being a key figure in bringing Communism to the ashheap of history is perhaps his finest achievement.

Sure thing. Click here and here.”

Please Michael! Real sources not warmed over tirades from Vox Nova. You said that the Reagan administration provided economic and military support to the Pinochet and Argentine regimes. Do you have anything at all to support this contention that constitutes real evidence?

“Regardless of whether or not I am a “partisan of the left” (absurd),”

Michael an unexamined life is a terrible thing. You are a leftist deal with it. You aren’t as far left as Catholic Anarchist and MM, but as most of your posts on Vox Nova demonstrate that your heart and mind are on the left.

Would you say the same about U.S. support for Stalinist Russia during WWII? Was that immoral?

Sure thing. Click here and here.

As to your notion that Reagan was a sponson of terrorism and blood, that is your view because you are a partisan of the left.

Um, ok. How easy it is to cash in the intellectual chips and just simply dismiss the facts presented by having recourse to arid political crutch-resting. Regardless of whether or not I am a “partisan of the left” (absurd), the facts are the facts, Donald: Reagan and his administration were aware of the bloodshed at the hands of the regimes he was supporting, but decided that preventing the spread of Communism was more important than ensuring that the blood of thousands of innocent civilians was not on America’s hands.

How one views Reagan is largely colored by how one views the attempt by Communist and far left forces to seize power in Central America in the late seventies and throughout the eighties.

So the murder of tens of thousands with the backing of the U.S. for the sake of Western capitalism is relativized according to one’s disposition toward Marxism? In one swoop, you managed to concede your ethics of life in favor of some hang-ups over the perceived threat of Marxism. Reagan is good in spite of his evils…and you called me the ideologue.