Islamist attacks began with Reagan’s Beirut crisis

There seems to be a lot of criticism of Hillary Clinton’s handling of the attack on our diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Egypt.

I would like to remind these critics that under President Reagan’s watch on April 18, 1983, there was a suicide bombing of our embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.

The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several U.S. soldiers and one U.S. Marine. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission up to that time, and it is considered the beginning of “Islamist” attacks on U.S. targets.

This story was originally published September 13, 2016 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Islamist attacks began with Reagan’s Beirut crisis."