211. Memorandum From the Deputy Secretary of State (Whitehead) to Secretary of State Shultz1
SUBJECT
- Daily Activities Report
[Omitted here is information unrelated to debt issues.]
4. LDC Debt Meeting. I got together all of our experts on the Latin debt problem this afternoon for a discussion of the issue prior to your meeting on Monday.2 ARA has developed a new scheme and, although it has many problems, it is at least encouraging to know that the building is starting to think more creatively about how to manage the LDC debt problem.3 I would like to have State think about new approaches to the LDC debt issue from the standpoint of needing to build a new phase onto the Baker plan (without infringing on Treasury’s lead role). At your meeting on Monday, you might encourage a continuation of the process we started today, i.e. moving the focus from ARA’s specific plan to simply encouraging people to generate more new ideas.
- Source: Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S–I Records, The Executive Secretariat’s Special Caption Documents, Lot 92D630: Not for the System—March 1987. Secret; Not for the System. Mueller initialed the memorandum and wrote “3/12.”↩
- March 16. No record of the meeting has been found.↩
- In a February 26 memorandum to Whitehead, Abrams outlined a proposal to strengthen the administration debt strategy by “providing partial relief through a World Bank facility to needy countries which are improving their economic management.” Attached to the memorandum is an undated paper further outlining the proposal. (Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S–I Records, Files of the Deputy Secretary of State (D), Lot 95D334: Debt)↩
- Whitehead initialed “JCW” above his typed signature.↩