Where is the evidence of this in backing the murderous Nicaraguan Samoza regime, Iran-Contra, helping set up Manuel Noriega's narcokleptocracy, helping continue the Guatemalan Civil War, and aligning with the certainly not peace-loving Thatcher and aiding her in the Falklands War, not to mention continuation of the School of the Americas and long-standing ruthless US policy in Latin America?

These issues at least bear mention and analysis, my dear historical friends, because they seem to me to directly contradict your thesis. The smiling face of American foreign policy has always had a bloody iron fist waiting behind it, and this iron fist is hardly saved only for those who serve as a threat to us, but rather serves to bash down anyone that threatens our politico-economic hegemony. If these people are fighting for democracy, communism, self-determination, or military juntas hardly matters to us. Or was Reagan really just as oblivious as legend has it, neatly reconciling his good natured humanity with the bloody ruthlessness of US Latin American foreign policy?

Don't forget either that Reagan vetoed sanctions against South Africa's apartheid regime because business always trumped human rights. His governing philosophy was a more genial version of W's "Whether I earned it honestly or not, I've got mine and I'm keeping it, to hell with you."