To the editor:

In his June 18 letter to the editor, Charles Goff III writes that Ronald Reagan’s “friends,” Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, were absent from the former president’s funeral.

Goff claims that Reagan supported bin Laden during the mujahedin’s fight to repel Soviet forces in Afghanistan. This claim cannot be substantiated.

Reagan financed Afghan natives while Saudi Arabia funded the so-called Arab Afghans. Two former CIA chiefs of station in Pakistan who supervised the funding for the Afghan rebels flatly deny that any CIA funds were ever given to bin Laden and the Afghan Arabs. They had never even heard of bin Laden during the 1980s.

As far as Saddam Hussein being Reagan’s “friend,” it is true that the Reagan administration provided Iraq with some assistance during the Iran-Iraq War. However, Iran was seen as the much bigger threat at the time and it is sometimes necessary to temporarily align yourself with an unsavory character in order to defeat an even greater unsavory character. If you don’t believe that, I have some photos of Franklin Roosevelt with Joseph Stalin to show you.

The absence of Osama and Saddam at Reagan’s funeral was appropriate and to be expected. However, the absence of decency and decorum among Reagan’s detractors is another matter.

Kevin Groenhagen,

Lawrence