ATLANTA -- Actor John Wayne once used language befitting his tough-guy image to take his friend Ronald Reagan to task for 'misinforming people' about the Panama Canal Treaty, letters in Jimmy Carter's presidential library show.
Wayne, a conservative Republican, took issue with Reagan in November 1977 over a letter he received from Reagan seeking Republican campaign funds, the Atlanta Journal-Atlanta Constitution said in today's editions.
Wayne, who died of cancer in 1979 at age 72, attached his reply to Reagan's letter -- which he titled 'Scare Letter from the Honorable Ronald Reagan' -- and gave a point-by-point argument against Reagan's criticism of the treaty.
He also sent a copy of his letter to Carter, and it is among 6 million documents being made public by the Carter library.
'If you continue these erroneous remarks, someone will publish your letter to prove that you are not as thorough in your reviewing of this treaty as you say or you are damned obtuse when it comes to reading the English language,' Wayne wrote Reagan.
The treaty was about the only issue that Wayne, whose first wife was a native of Panama, agreed with Carter on. Other Wayne letters took issue with Carter on amnesty to Vietnam War draft dodgers and on the alleged failure of Andrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to take a hard line against Marxists in Rhodesia.
Wayne's letter to Reagan, a vocal critic of the treaty, said he was not making the issue a personal one but he felt Reagan 'should take a look at the difference between point of view and facts.'
'I went to a lot of trouble and I brought in people to prove to you that most of the alarming things that you are saying are untruths,' wrote Wayne, who signed the letter, 'Duke.'
Carter apparently did not respond to Wayne's letter to Reagan but he wrote Wayne a month earlier regarding a form letter Wayne sent to individual senators supporting the treaty. Wayne sent Carter a copy and signed it, 'Loyal Opposition, John Wayne.'
Wayne told the senators, that 'We negotiated those treaties fairly, we struck a bargain that serves the interests of both countries' and he said any attempt to amend them would 'undo all of that.'
'This is a matter of great importance, and I am grateful for your help,' Carter wrote Wayne. 'I look forward to continued work with such a fine member of the Loyal Opposition.'
