Office of the Historian

27. Note of a Meeting Between President Reagan and Secretary of State Shultz by the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Hill)1

Washington, March 25, 1983

[Omitted here is material unrelated to the Soviet Union.]

P [President]—Doby [Dobrynin] mtg [meeting] is origin of all this

East-West Rels [Relations]

S [Secretary]—P Friday Readout

What S said: If Sov [Soviets] by what it did showed it ready for constr [constructive] rel [relations], P was willing. (Basic dec [decision] that we wld [would] try for more const rel)

—He wld welc [welcome] mtg w Andrp [Andropov] but only if sure to produce subs [substantive] advances. In P-Doby mtg he had talked of Pentac [Pentecostals] as first of symbolic steps. Doby sent it in & Sov had responded & then we did. Today another resp [response] in what Lidia got—approval. (a direct signal). Then we wld try to outline steps that interruptible, but cld [could] become larger. Bgnd [Background] music of human rts [rights]. They must play it and many bilat [bilateral] steps that they like & we can take. But large agenda is arms control & reg [regional] issues.

I disc [discuss] w [with] Doby here & Hartman there.

Then: S-Gromyko in Moscow (so he sees Andrp)

When Gromy [Gromyko] at UN, he wld see P

All to move twd [toward] P- Andrp late ’83 summit conf [conference] ’84

—Talked Pentac: P suppose they out, but in Bonn? No problem Clark says.

MBFR. We shld [should] go into verif [verification] & not stress data. See where we end up & then see if we can verify. Howe doing paper. P agreed. P thinks it easier for Sov to move troops back than for us.

Bilats I described cult [cultural] agreement & consular opening Kiev. On LTA I said its coming. He agreed. So do what we can before being forced to by Cong [Congress]. Maybe April. I promised something on LTA. Clark says get it to P w/o [without] domestic wing [Page 94] seeing it or we will lose control.2 On INF I shld talk to Doby. Say it serious effort. We wld put fwd [forward] that at Geneva & work on it betw [between] rounds. We shld have Nitze say we will table it. And advance next round. (LSE: I will have 2 drafts tomorrow, one no, one w/o). Rick says Ruth says not now, give later number. He opposed by most who favor a concrete proposal. If not a # now, there will be one.3

I sd [said] betwe [between] rounds Doby shld come to me to talk about START and then INF [unclear].4 P said ok. I sd we’d get Gromyko mtg w [with] agenda.5

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Charles Hill Papers, Charles Hill Notebooks, Entry for March 25, 1983. No classification marking. The editor transcribed the text from an entry in Hill’s handwritten notebooks. An image of the note is Appendix B. After his meeting with Reagan on March 25, Shultz returned to the Department and briefed Hill.↩
  2. Hill wrote in the left margin: “EUR Palmer hand carry to Clark.”↩
  3. Hill wrote in the left margin: “check on Doby Mon.”↩
  4. Hill wrote in the margin: “(tp [talking points] for S-Doby Mon Dobbins).” He originally wrote “Howe” but crossed this out.↩
  5. Hill wrote in the margin: “(EUR, S/P, Howe EUR)”↩