Twenty-five years ago this past Saturday, US F-14A Tomcat fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz shot down two Libyan Sukhoi fighter-bombers that had attacked the U.S. aircraft over the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea. Press coverage at the time criticized President Reagan because he was not awakened and notified of the military action, leading many to conclude this was yet another instance of the president being detached from important events. As with so many other myths about Ronald Reagan, the facts tell a very different story.
Given Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's welcome and more moderate policy approach of recent years, some may not remember just how bellicose Libyan statements and actions were in the 1980s. Col. Gadhafi had drawn a purported “Line of Death” in international waters in the northern Gulf of Sidra and said that he would shoot down any U.S. aircraft that went south of this line.
The U.S. Navy regularly conducts “Freedom of Navigation” operations around the world to establish rights of free passage through international waters, especially where nations make claims of sovereignty beyond their territorial waters (generally 12 miles from the coastline). In the summer of 1981, the Pentagon decided to conduct a “stair step” exercise in the Gulf of Sidra north of Libya, using progressively more assertive military actions to challenge Col. Gadhafi's “Line of Death.” A full National Security Council meeting was held in the Cabinet Room at the White House on July 31, 1981, to brief Mr. Reagan on the exercise.
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