US soldiers in Shannon

Darryl Broe is ignoring history when he objects to American soldiers using Shannon Airport (Irish Examiner, Letters, May 6).

Many American soldiers lost their lives keeping the continent of Europe from falling under the totalitarian control of the extreme right under Hitler or the extreme left under Stalin and their successors. We should never forget that. American imperialism is anything but perfect. But both the German and Russian alternatives were totalitarian in the extreme. Allowing American soldiers to use Shannon Airport is a small price to pay for our freedom from totalitarianism.

A Leavy