Office of the Historian

47. Memorandum From Henry Nau of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Allen)1

Washington, September 18, 1981

SUBJECT

  • Haig’s UNGA Speech

Haig expects to give his UNGA speech on Monday, September 21. Except for the first two pages, it is entirely on the subject of development. Many of the ideas in the speech are excellent reflecting Reagan views on development, but it clearly scoops the President and it contains some ideas that are not very Reaganesque (e.g. laments the fact that aid has not kept pace with needs). It also contains one big proposal that has not been cleared with anyone in the U.S. government, let alone anyone in foreign capitals (Tab I).2

The big proposal calls for a special International Conference on Growth to be held before February of next year.3 Cancun would serve as a preparatory session for this Conference developing a conceptual framework for a strategy of growth which would then be fleshed out by [Page 146] senior economic and finance officials of the participating countries at the Conference on Growth (presumably the same countries participating at Cancun). The Conference on Growth would design the specifics of a strategy to be pursued at the 1982 GATT Ministerial in the case of trade, at the International Finance Cooperation Ministerial in 1983 in the case of investment, and through the annual IMF/World Bank meetings in the case of finance.

This proposal is not that different from some of the thinking that we have been doing on an alternative to GNs. The key problem is that it has not been discussed with anyone, not even Treasury. If it is presented at the UNGA on Monday as a complete surprise, it will be read as a clear attempt to substitute for GNs and will be opposed. No one will stand with us in its defense since we have not solicited anyone’s cooperation.

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Douglas McMinn Files, Economic Summit Files, Mexico—Speeches. No classification marking. Sent for information. Sent through Bailey, who did not initial the memorandum. Allen wrote in the top right-hand corner of the memorandum on September 21: “Handled. Good job of providing heads-up on this.”↩
  2. A draft copy of Haig’s speech is attached but not printed. For the text of his UN General Assembly address, given September 21, see Department of State Bulletin, October 1981, pp. 1–6. The address is also printed in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, Document 63.↩
  3. Allen placed a checkmark in the right-hand margin next to this sentence.↩