When, in October 1986, Reagan sent in the Marines and ousted the Cuban-allied communist military regime in Grenada, Kerry called the event a "bully's show of force." Reagan's unilateral military action and willingness to use force against a Marxist government that had just taken over the island nation in a bloody coup, threatening 1,000 American medical students, sent a clear message to Cuba, Nicaragua, the Soviet Union and others.
When Reagan, in 1986, retaliated against Libya for bombing a disco that killed an American, Kerry said, "It is obvious that our response was not proportional to the disco bombing. . . . There are numerous other actions we can take, in concert with our allies, to bring significant pressure to bear on countries supporting or harboring terrorists."
About Reagan's Cold War military buildup, Kerry, in 1983, said, "What we as citizens can tell our government is that President Reagan should reorder his priorities. We don't need expensive and exotic weapons systems." In February 1984, Kerry said Reagan "has mortgaged our future in order to pay for a bloated military budget." Later that year, Kerry said, "The defense expenditures of the Reagan administration are without any relevancy to the threat this nation is currently facing."
In "In the Cold War, Kerry Froze," opinion piece writer Joshua Muravchik said, "Many leaders had a hand in Washington's Cold War triumph, but Ronald Reagan's contributions were pivotal, and Kerry opposed every one of them. Reagan's defense buildup disabused Soviet leaders of any hope that they could ultimately come out ahead of the United States. Kerry derided these military expenditures as 'bloated' and 'without any relevancy to the threat.' In particular, Reagan's plan to seek a missile defense system against Soviet ICBMs and NATO's decision to station new missiles in Europe to counteract the new Soviet deployment there rendered futile the Kremlin's vast investment in nuclear supremacy. Instead of these measures, Kerry advocated that we adopt a one-sided 'nuclear freeze.'"
What's next, a Kerry proposal to put Margaret Thatcher on Mount Rushmore?