Madam, - As a foreign correspondent who witnessed the wholesale misery and destruction visited upon Central America during the Reagan administration I was disappointed to read only a fleeting reference to genocide in Guatemala and death squads in El Salvador in the sentimental coverage of the former US leader in last Monday's edition.
Even more disturbing is the complete omission of a key 1986 ruling of the International Court of Justice which found the Reagan administration guilty of "unlawful use of force" in prosecuting a war of terror in Nicaragua through its proxy "Contra" army. The Reagan administration ignored the World Court ruling and refused to pay recommended reparations which would have eliminated Nicaragua's crippling external debt.
In his glowing column on Reagan's legacy Mark Steyn cites Edna St Vincent Millay. I too hear echoes of her poetry on recalling a leader who in a more just world would have faced trial for crimes against humanity: "There are a hundred places where I fear to go - so with his memory they brim." - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL McCAUGHAN,
Tubber,
Co Clare.