"He played some very key roles in the liberation of Grenada and the policy in Central America and the defeat of the Sandinistas and the Communists in El Salvador," Reilly recounted.

"He had a very keen strategic sense, a very powerful and analytical ability which together allowed him to predict a great deal of what would happen if a certain course of action were followed and what indeed would happen were we to fail to follow a course of action to its success."

Dr. Menges, Reilly said, also played a key role in the Cold War.

"He was fluent in Russian, German, French and Spanish; he was deeply immersed in history.

"He worked for Director Casey at the CIA in the first part of the Reagan administration, principally on Latin America, but he also followed Soviet affairs very clearly and he had a total comprehension of Soviet global strategy.

"He understood all the component parts to that strategy as they were being played out in Central America, in Cuba and Afghanistan and in other extensions of the Soviet empire.

"He was a very profound thinker and a very fine author and he was intrepid in his determination and his pursuit of these policies and in support of President Reagan.

"That made him some enemies, principally in the State Department, where he earned the moniker 'Menges Khan,' which I think was a great compliment to him.

"They were afraid of him because he was a man of principle. That does not mean he wasn’t a man of prudence – he was. But when push came to shove and you either are going to adhere to or abandon principle, Constantine was one the people who would stand up for it," Reilly explained.

Now at the Defense Department as the senior adviser on information strategy, Reilly said that Dr. Menges never sought the limelight. "He was always behind the scenes working for the success of these policies. He probably did more for the imprisoned peoples around the world and for their freedom than they will ever possibly know – that there was a man like Constantine Menges who worked so indefatigably on their behalf. He was a champion of freedom."

Reilly added: "His loss was a tremendous loss. There are very few people like Constantine Menges in public life."

Editor's note: