Constantine Menges, Senior Reagan Adviser, Passes

Constantine Menges, Senior Reagan Adviser, Passes

NewsMax Wires
Monday, July 12, 2004

Dr. Constantine C. Menges, a senior foreign policy adviser to Ronald Reagan, passed away this Sunday after a quiet struggle with cancer.

A senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Dr. Menges, 64, was one of the architects of Ronald Reagan’s effort to defeat the Soviet Union.

Story Continues Below

“Dr. Menges was a heroic figure in the Reagan White House,” former ambassador Faith Whittlesey said. Whittlesey served as the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and on the senior staff of the Reagan White House. “He played a major role in the White House, oftentimes behind the scenes, in helping Bill Casey, Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Bill Clarke not only devise the strategy that defeated the Soviets, but in implementing it.”

Dr. Menges had joined the Reagan administration at the urging of CIA Director William J. Casey and he served briefly at the agency as its National Intelligence Officer for Latin America.

In 1983 he left the CIA and joined the White House’s National Security Council to serve as special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs.

Among his many policy achievements, Dr. Menges may be best remembered for having been the key advocate and planner for the successful U.S. effort to liberate Grenada in 1983.

The successful military operation – sometimes referred to as the “Menges Plan” – liberated the island nation from a Castro-backed communist government. The Grenada liberation has been described as a major turning point in U.S. Cold War strategy.

During the 1980s Menges became a champion of implementing President Reagan’s anti-communist efforts in Latin America, including support for the “Contra” insurgency that threatened the Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

Dr. Menges helped form the Reagan administration’s policy of supporting indigenous democratic forces that could combat what he viewed as the Soviet’s “indirect aggression” against the West. The policy meant limited costs and no risk of U.S. casualties.

In his book “Inside the National Security Council: The True Story of the Making and Unmaking of Reagan’s Foreign Policy,” Dr. Menges argued that the National Security Council's main role was to offer the president the best, most impartial information for decision-making.

During the Reagan years, however, Dr. Menges revealed that the State Department often acted to thwart presidential directives and subvert the national security process. He complained that the failure of several senior Reagan aides to follow this process had led to the Iran-Contra scandal.

After leaving government, Dr. Menges continued his academic work on foreign policy and national security matters. He regularly briefed members of Congress and senior government officials on emerging threats.

In recent years, he warned of three major threats against the United States. These included:

Growing pro-Castro alliance throughout Latin America. Dr. Menges warned that a foreign policy disaster of titanic proportions was festering in Latin America, as pro-Castro regimes had taken root in Venezuela, Brazil and other countries. He noted that more than 220 million Latinos had fallen into Castro’s orbit in the past few years due to U.S. foreign policy negligence.

State-sponsored terror. A strong supporter of President Bush’s war on terror, Dr. Menges believed the U.S. was wise to focus upon state sponsors of terror, including Iraq. But from the earliest days of the U.S. effort to remove Saddam Hussein, Dr. Menges said that Iran would try to subvert U.S. efforts in southern Iraq. He suggested the Bush administration had not adequately prepared to deal with Iran’s subversion. He claimed the Iranians had already poured $1 billion into Iraq to support thousands of subversive agents.

China’s superpower rise. Dr. Menges believed the U.S. should continue to engage China in trade and cultural matters, but believed the U.S. should put strict linkages between U.S. economic ties and demands for human rights. Dr. Menges saw China as an emerging superpower that could pose new dangers to the U.S. At the time of his death he was completing his latest book, “China, The Gathering Threat.”

Dr. Menges is survived by his beloved wife, Nancy, and his son, Christopher.