Reagan Lauds U.S. Intervention Abroad : Cites Grenada as Example of Giving Help to Freedom Fighters

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan, speaking on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Grenada, today offered a rousing defense of U.S. involvement in anti-communist struggles around the world.

“Today in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, we are seeing moves toward peace and freedom that would have been unthinkable even a few short months ago,” Reagan told students at the National Defense University here.

“In each country, the Soviets and their allies have said that they will withdraw and the reason is clear: In each country we helped freedom fighters obtain the supplies that, together with their own courage, evened the odds,” he said in what was billed by White House aides as a major foreign policy address.

Reagan also used the occasion to sign into law a bill creating a Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs.

The new law would elevate the Veterans Administration to Cabinet status, making its secretary the 14th member of the President’s Cabinet.

“This bill gives those who have . . . protected our nation’s security in war and peace a gift of what they have deserved for so long--a seat at the table in our national affairs,” Reagan said.

Reagan made his remarks on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Grenada by U.S. Marines after the tiny Caribbean island was shaken by a leftist coup. Their mission took several days to complete after U.S. forces ran into unexpected resistance.

Reagan’s supporters rate the invasion as one of the great foreign policy successes of his term in office.

Reagan said the Grenada invasion did not signal “that we eagerly jump into every fight; we don’t. But we’ve always been ready to give a hand to those struggling for freedom when they need it.”

He said American leaders in the post-Vietnam War era had forgotten that “when freedom is diminished anywhere in the world, freedom everywhere is endangered.”