Hillary Clinton has apologised after angering Aids activists by saying Nancy Reagan helped start a "national conversation" about the disease.
Many campaigners remain bitter at former President Ronald Reagan for a perceived slow response to Aids in the 1980s.
But Mrs Clinton told an interview with MSNBC: "Because of both President and Mrs Reagan, in particular Mrs Reagan, we started a national conversation, when before nobody would talk about it. Nobody wanted to do anything about it."
A short time later the Democratic presidential hopeful performed a climbdown on Twitter.
"While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, I misspoke about their record on HIV and Aids," she wrote. "For that, I'm sorry."
Reports of the disease surfaced in 1981 but President Reagan did not make a public speech about it until 1987.
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates LGBT rights, tweeted: "While I respect her advocacy on issues like stem cell and Parkinson's research, Nancy Reagan was, sadly, no hero in the fight against HIV/AIDS."
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