Reagan had 'evil sex' angst

[T_i_B]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3128464.stm

Personal letters written by Ronald Reagan reveal that the former US president had guilty feelings about sex, but his attitude later changed.

Mr Reagan advised one old friend in 1951 that sex was a natural function. "Even in marriage I had a little guilty feeling about sex, as if the whole thing was tinged with evil", he told the friend, whose husband had died.

But Mr Reagan said a "fine old gentleman" had pointed him in the right direction by citing the behaviour of primitive Polynesians. "These peoples, who are truly children of nature and thus of God, accept physical desire as a natural, normal appetite", he said.

The 1,000 letters appear in a book Reagan: A Life in Letters, which is being released on Tuesday. Excerpts are also being published in Time magazine.