Office of the Historian

98. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Clark) to the Counselor to the President (Meese), the White House Chief of Staff (Baker), and the White House Deputy Chief of Staff (Deaver)1

Washington, August 31, 1982

SUBJECT

  • Status of GNs Discussions

At Versailles, we reached agreement with our allies on a common text for launching the GNs. Our objective was to escape the persisting pressure on the U.S. to enter these discussions without adequate safeguards by drawing the allies into a consensus which we ultimately felt the LDCs would not accept. We gambled, because the allies entered into this consensus only because they believed the LDCs would accept it. Even if the allies had been right, we felt we had a text that would have fully protected the specialized agencies.

As it turned out, we guessed right. The LDCs rejected the text. Meanwhile, the Versailles Summit countries remain united on a text agreed to by the heads of government/state which cannot be changed except by agreement among the heads themselves. Nailing this agreement down at the Summit has eliminated the constant maneuvering by the Foreign Ministries and the New York Missions of the Versailles governments to isolate us on this issue. The result is that all the pressure to change is now on the LDCs (G–77). Since they cannot change without appearing to cave to the industrialized countries, the GNs issue is rapidly fading away.

There may be one last attempt to save it at the approaching UN General Assembly Session in New York. I, therefore, wanted to provide you the attached information to suggest the strength of our current position and the need to hold tenaciously to the agreement with the allies, which is all documented in writing.2

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Douglas McMinn Files, Subject Files, Global Negotiations; NLR–369–3–22–16–8. Top Secret. McFarlane initialed for Clark. Sent under a covering memorandum from Nau to Clark.↩
  2. Tab A, “Status Report,” is not attached. In telegram 1885 from USUN, July 6, the Mission reported on the G–77’s failure to accept the Versailles Summit Global Negotiations text. (Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Trip File, Versailles Summit 1982—N/S; NLR–755–13–12–2–4)↩