53. Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan1
1. Meeting with Wife of Anatoliy Shcharanskiy. Mrs. Avital Shcharanskiy, wife of imprisoned Soviet dissident Anatoliy Shcharanskiy, called on me today to appeal for Administration efforts to obtain the release of her husband. She pointed out that he was convicted on false charges of spying for the U.S. European leaders with whom she had spoken, including Mrs. Thatcher, told her that only U.S. influence would be great enough to effect his release.
Senators D’Amato and Spector accompanied Mrs. Shcharanskiy and gave me a copy of last night’s Senate resolution concerning her husband.2 The Department is announcing to the press that I have agreed to give Dobrynin a copy of the resolution for transmittal to the Soviet leadership. (C)
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Soviet Union.]
- Source: Reagan Library, Matlock Files, Dissidents (2/23). Confidential. Allen sent the memorandum to Reagan under cover a May 14 memorandum, on which the President wrote: “Let us do all we can to help get her husband freed RR.” Allen conveyed this message in a memorandum to Haig. (Ibid.)↩
- A memorandum of conversation of this meeting is in the Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S–I Records: Haig and Shultz Memcons, Lot 87D327, SEC/Memcons, May 1981.↩