91. Notes by Secretary of Defense Weinberger of a National Security Planning Group Meeting1
NSC—Sit [Situation] Rm [Room]
President
V.P.
GPS [George Shultz] Even if USSR thought it was a US recon [reconnaissance] plane—they shot it down w/o any inquiry. No hotline, etc.
Shows they’d do a 1st strike. We should use this to help us get Big Defense Budget & to get rid of Boland-Zablocki amend [amendment].2
& maybe in Lebanon.3
Sanctions—try not to hurt us.
USSR—says they regret loss of human life but blame us.
Options
State Civil aviation options
RR [Ronald Reagan] But something to get reparations
CW [Caspar Weinberger]—Ct [Court] of Int’l Justice—& direct demand of USSR for reparations
RR—they shot down our planes in 50s & 60s
RR—what if we just turn around a USSR ship going into Corinto4
[Page 316]CWW—seek meetings of NATO & ASEAN
RR—get other countries to join with us for reparations & in actions to block USSR Aeroflot
RR—make public list of US planes shot down by USSR in 50s & 60s
Don Regan—Economic sanctions probably won’t get agreement of other countries
Stop tourism & ask other nations to do same until we could get answers fr [from] USSR
Stop imports from USSR—allies wouldn’t [unclear—budge?]
Titanium & chrome
No on blocking USSR assets deposited
CWW rescue task force
INF
GPS Gromyko meeting
General Vessey—[unclear—Soviet recon missions?]
RR need arms reductions. We should proceed & meet with them.
Rescue mission
Reparations.
Stop sending ships to Nicaragua or we’ll stop them for you
GPS Mistake not to go to Madrid
Mistake to refuse to talk to people
Shorter meeting
Agenda
Shoot down
Human rights—Shcharansky
Compliance with treaties
Ed Meese—need to do more things that relate to air safety
Memorial service at Nat’l Cathedral and [unclear—churches?]
RR—Attitude
INF—great opportunity to go after USSR—the best way to stop deployment—if you eliminate then we won’t deploy. But we [unclear—can or could?] leave table if you [unclear—leave Eur?]
You have [unclear]
Statement by President
Planning—what can be done on behalf of victims
[unclear—Tape?]
GPS—Range of options
[unclear—Comments?]
[Page 317][unclear—call for?] react [reaction] & condemnation & general support
Lebanon—McFarlane
- Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Weinberger Papers, Appointment and Diary File, Box 9, Notes Set B, 1983 #25–41. No classification marking. The editor transcribed this text from Weinberger’s handwritten notes of the NSPG meeting. An image of the notes is Appendix D. The NSPG meeting to “discuss the Soviet attack on the Korean civil airliner” was held in the Situation Room from 6 p.m. to 7:57 p.m. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary) No formal record of the meeting was found.↩
- See footnote 5, Document 89.↩
- Weinberger wrote “Arms reduction” in the margin in a box on the left-hand side.↩
- Corinto is a port city on the northwest Pacific coast of Nicaragua.↩