Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XLI, Global Issues II

71. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Hill) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (McFarlane)¹

Washington, August 4, 1984

SUBJECT

• Ambassador Stoessel’s July 18–25 Mission to Europe

Ambassador Stoessel, accompanied by HA Deputy Assistant Secretary Gary Matthews and an officer from the Soviet Desk, recently completed the second round of his Presidential Mission to consult with friends and allies on Soviet human rights performance (the first mission took place July 4–14, 1983). This leg of the mission included visits to Switzerland, West Germany, Denmark and France. Ambassador Stoessel and his party were received at the Secretary-General or Political Director level, and were able to engage in extensive consultations² on the Soviet human rights situation and joint strategy for the upcoming CSCE meetings in Ottawa, Budapest and Bern.³

In general, all of Ambassador Stoessel’s interlocutors agreed that the situation inside the Soviet Union had deteriorated significantly⁴ since his last series of consultations in 1983, although the French in particular seemed to be unaware of the extent to which matters had worsened.⁵ There was also general agreement that at this stage there was little outsiders could do to influence the overall course of events within the Soviet Union, though there were still limited possibilities for quiet diplomacy on specific cases. All felt it was important to keep the issue of Soviet human rights violations before the international public. Finally, all agreed that the West should work to prevent the Soviets from shifting the focus of upcoming CSCE human rights meetings in Ottawa, Budapest and Bern away from implementation questions and toward more theoretical and less controversial issues.

New Ideas

Two new ideas emerged during Ambassador Stoessel’s consultations. The first came from the Swiss, who said they were planning to propose at the Ottawa Human Rights Experts Meeting in May 1985 that the CSCE countries should form a “human rights mechanism” in each country, modeled fairly closely on the State Department’s Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, which would enable the CSCE countries to consult bilaterally and multilaterally on human rights issues of interest. We made the obvious points that the Warsaw Pact countries would be driven up the wall by this proposal, and that there was a reluctance on the part of many Western countries (notably the French) to establish new mechanisms of this type. However, we also agreed that the idea deserved a good deal more study, and encouraged the Swiss to pursue their investigations. MFA State Secretary Edouard Brunner will be in the United States in October, and will relay to us the results of further Swiss consideration of this issue.⁶

Second, French opposition deputies Francois Leotard and Michel Noir expressed to Ambassador Stoessel a strong interest in forming a legislative CSCE watch group in Paris, along the lines of the Joint Congressional CSCE Commission. Leotard and Noir, who met with Mrs. Bonner this March in Moscow shortly before the beginning of Dr. Sakharov’s hunger strike,⁷ are committed to increasing international attention to Soviet human rights abuses. They were fascinated by Ambassador Stoessel’s description of the way in which our CSCE Commission works, and will be coming to the United States at an appropriate time to consult with us and with Congressmen and Senators with the aim of establishing such a Commission in France.

Follow-up

In addition to the consultations referred to above, we will be conducting a continuing series of meetings with friends and allies, within the context of the Stoessel Mission and complementing our efforts in NATO, aimed at increasing Western unity at upcoming CSCE meetings. Max Kampelman will be journeying to several European countries this September as part of the second round of Stoessel Mission consultations. In addition, Elliott Abrams may go to Ireland on a separate trip this fall to take up Stoessel Mission themes. If there is sufficent reason and a continuing demand from our friends for such consultations, we would also envisage a third Stoessel Mission for mid-1985.

Charles Hill

1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC: Subject File, Human Rights (08/1984–12/1984). Confidential. McKinley signed for Hill.
2. See footnote 6, Document 70.
3. References are to the Budapest Cultural Forum of 1985 and the Bern Human Contacts Experts’ Meeting of 1986, respectively.
4. In telegram 3114 from Moscow, March 15, the Embassy reported that Soviet emigration to Israel had reached its lowest level since 1970. (Department of State, Assistant Secretary Subject Files—Human Rights Country Files, 1984, Lot 86D220, SHUM—Soviet Union Jewish Emigration 1984)
5. In the left-hand margin, McFarlane highlighted this sentence.
6. In telegram 293916 to Bern, October 3, the Department summarized Brunner’s October 1 meeting with Dam. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D840629–0443)
7. Sakharov began a hunger strike on May 2. (Dusko Doder, “Sakharov’s Condition During Hunger Strike Remains a Mystery,” Washington Post, May 17, 1984, p. A33)