2. Editorial Note
In his diary entry for October 20, 1986, President Ronald Reagan noted: “A meeting to discuss how to respond to the Soviets kicking 5 of our diplomatic people out of Russia. Four are from the Soviet Embassy & 1 from the Leningrad Consulate. This is their reply to our sending 25 of their K.G.B. types home from the U.N. We had announced we were going to reduce their staff at the U.N. which is greater than the next 2 nations put together. Now they have hinted at further action if we reply in kind. Well we’re going to reply with 4 from their embassy & 1 from the S.F. [San Francisco] consulate are going to be ordered out. In addition we’re going to reduce their staff to the size of ours in Moscow—that will be maybe as many as 80 or so.” (Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries, Volume II, November 1985–January 1989, p. 649; brackets in quoted text)
In telegram 18358 from Moscow, October 22, the Embassy reported that Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs USA Department Deputy Vitaly Mikol’chak had summoned U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Combs to declare five U.S. officials persona non grata (PNG). Reading a prepared oral statement, Mikol’chak linked this action to the U.S. reduction of Soviet staff at the Embassy in Washington and Consulate General in San Francisco. In response, Combs “made clear that U.S. actions had not been directed at poisoning [the] atmosphere of U.S.-Soviet relations,” and that “we could not accept the unfounded implication that the five U.S. officers were engaged in improper activity, or that our U.N. actions were discriminatory.” (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D860815–0208)