Madam, - Mark Steyn's latest tribute to Ronald Reagan (Opinion, 21st June) is an awesome feat of Orwellian irony. The most serious falsification of truth occurs in two short paragraphs on Guatemala.
He brushes aside the mass murder of Mayan Indians as "an example of what happens when Washington is absent". In 1999, a UN truth commission (CEH) estimated that 93 per cent of these murders were carried out by the national army, reaching "genocidal" proportions during the reign of Rios Montt. The report concluded that "the government of the US, through various agencies including the CIA, provided direct and indirect support for some [of these\] state operations". On July 18th, 1982, the New York Times reported Montt declaring to a crowd of Guatemalans, "if you are with us, we'll feed you; if not, we'll kill you". On December 4th that year Reagan hailed Montt as "a man of great personal integrity" who is "totally dedicated to democracy". In 1999, Clinton apologised for US involvement in the "dark events" of Guatemala's horrendous past.
Mr Steyn dispenses with El Salvador in one paragraph, saluting Reagan's "campaign for democracy" after its 1982 elections. Irish clergy in El Salvador who documented widespread rape, torture and murder carried out by the ruling Reagan-supported junta would give Mr Steyn a more realistic idea of events there.
Mr Steyn reduces all debate on this issue to a false dilemma of supporting Communism or supporting Reagan. He takes up more space caricaturing his opponents than addressing the arguments at hand.
This article is an act of intellectual vandalism which damages the integrity of your paper. - Yours etc.,
LIAM QUAIDE, North Great Georges Street, Dublin 1.