If you visit the website of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, you'll find a description of the ship's seal, its official emblem. The description reads, in part:

The aircraft carrier, cutting a powerful swath through the sea, is positioned by
the West Coast representing President Reagan’s two terms as Governor of
California and the ship’s homeport in the Pacific Fleet. The three aircraft with
their patriotic contrails symbolize the three major military operations the
President directed during his tenure: Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada/1983);
Operation El Dorado Canyon (Libya/1986); and Operation Praying Mantis
(Iran/1988). Aircraft carriers played a significant role in these operations.


They did indeed. And they played a significant role in the eighteen-month mission of the Multi-National Force in Lebanon, from September 1982 to April 1984. But although it involved thousands of our servicemembers and resulted in 268 killed in action, it apparently was not a "major military operation." Or maybe the President didn't direct it.

Or maybe it didn't happen on his watch. Here's an extract from the biography of President Reagan found on the same website:

It is difficult to recall today, but when Reagan took office, times were deeply
troubled. U.S. hostages in Iran were released for his inauguration, but under
circumstances that seemed humiliating to many Americans. In Lebanon, groups
supported by Iran began a series of hostage seizures: a journalist, a CIA
station chief, a Marine Corps officer. Early in the new presidency, a terror
bomber killed 241 Marines in Beirut and a crisis erupted on the Caribbean Island
of Grenada.

Ronald Reagan took office on January 20, 1981. The Marines in Beirut were landed there, at his orders, on September 29, 1982. I remember this fact quite well, because I was one of them. The "terror bomber" destroyed the headquarters of the Battalion Landing Team (BLT) on October 23, 1983. The Marines were withdrawn from Beirut the following February because their presence had become an embarassment to a president running for re-election. And the chronological chicanery gets worse:

In Lebanon, groups supported by Iran began a series of hostage seizures:
a journalist, (Terry Anderson, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Associated Press correspondent, was taken hostage on March 16, 1985. This is more than a year after the Marines evacuated Lebanon, and well into President Reagan's second term. Anderson was released on December 4, 1991.)
a CIA station chief , (William Francis Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by the Hezbollah on March 16, 198 ,after the Marines left Beirut. He died of a heart-attack while being tortured. His body was returned to the United States on December 28, 1991.)
a Marine Corps officer. (Col. Richard Higgins, USMC, was captured in Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorists on February 17, 1988, in the last year of the Reagan presidency. He was declared dead on July 6, 1990.)


But this description was obviously written by people who remember what happened, for consumption by people who don't. The tone of the piece implies that "a series of hostage seizures" and "Marines in Beirut" were problems President Reagan inherited, when in fact he created them.

HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
-- Ambrose Bierce

I beg to differ gunny. He inherited alot of the Arabic terrorist problems from the smiling peanut farmer. Yes he did escalate the situation, but it was time that someone did and did something from a show of strength.
I can't swallow the whole tale here that Reagan created the whole situation.
Another situation where the facts are brought out to sway other readers or to prove the point of the author. But not with the entire line of circumstances and full facts that are relevant to the story.

If I implied that Reagan created the whole situation (and re-reading this, I'm afraid I did), then that part is wrong. But what about the fact that chronology is being misrepresented, to imply that all of these things were waiting on Reagan's desk from day one? That, I think, is equally wrong.

We often complain that popular media give a false and biased picture of the truth (Oliver Stone's "JFK" is a classic example). But Stone at least has the defense of artistic license. How can an official DoD publication justify tinkering with the truth?

You know gunny you ask how an official DOD publication justify tinkering with the truth? I hate to tell you but I can site several times they have changed things to suit their purpose.
Especially in reporting aircraft material readiness and systems up times and capablities. That doesn't just mean one service. All of them have done it. The American people were bilked out of millions of dollars by the Air Force in the mid 70s when they wanted a system that the Navy had already proven could be jammed and be useless without more development costs.
We used to call it "Gun decking the figures."
I was once told by a senior (very) Naval officer that within the DOD facts and figures were automatically disbelieved at the rate 10 to 15% In other words the error rate for the figures was off that much and discounted by that rate.
How do they justify it....when you have the heavy brass on your collar and sleeve, I guess anything is possible.

If you think the DoD is bad, look at the Nazi Park Service.

I agree with you Thrust. I think in the last ten years the Park Service has lost some of its common sense. Although there are pockets of intelligence at some sites. I used to have the NSN for Common Sense in the Federal Supply system.
Of course it was little used during the last Democratic Administration. I wonder about this next one?

I think it would simply be best to leave the national parks and national military monuments in the hands of dedicated local guides and caretakers. The only time I ever went to Washington, and hopefully the last, there was more scorn for the founders from the guides than praise. In contrast, there is nothing PC about the Alamo.