Ronald Reagan

Re “Defining, Deifying Reagan in History,” April 3: The thought of Ronald Reagan’s visage being carved into Mt. Rushmore is, to put it mildly, sickening. Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt all presided over administrations steeped in strong moral character and integrity. Reagan presided over an administration soaked to the gills in greed, selfishness, dishonesty and arrogance.

It’s high time that Harry Truman’s features were carved into the mountain. As opposed to Reagan, Truman is the epitome of virtue and would fit in just fine!

DAVE DELVAL

Dana Point

*

Reagan’s likeness does indeed belong on Mt. Rushmore. The dismantling of international Communism was an unparalleled achievement for which he must receive virtually full credit. Understandably, the Democrats don’t want to see him up there. It would be a constant reminder that he accomplished this goal in spite of them, rather than in partnership with them.

ARTHUR HANSL

Santa Monica

*

The Teflon is gone and now the myth is sticking. The myth that Reagan’s gross military expenditures won the Cold War has been repeated so much that it is becoming accepted wisdom. Historian Michael Beschloss ranks it as the key question about Reagan’s legacy.

Absent from consideration are the Soviets. And it seems improbable that the people who survived Napoleon and Hitler, who held out during the brutal sieges of Stalingrad and Leningrad and who live through the Russian winter every year casually capitulated because they were in a recession. Would Beschloss and others kindly admit that perhaps the vision of leaders like Gorbachev and Yeltsin had a little more to do with the end of the Cold War than the expensive toys of a myopic American?

Reagan’s legacy is trillions of dollars of debt. The attempt to justify that debt by saying it magically defeated the Soviets is an arrogant historical conclusion.

JIM POTTER

Manhattan Beach