83. Memorandum From Secretary of State Shultz to President Reagan 1
SUBJECT
- My Meeting Today with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin
Dobrynin called on me today to discuss several details of our meetings with Shevardnadze and your meeting with Gorbachev. I took the opportunity to raise the latest Military Liaison Mission incident and their treatment of our regional discussions on East Asia.2 We plan to get together next week to have a more substantial discussion.
Dobrynin asked about the plans for your meeting with Shevardnadze. I told him that we were proceeding with a schedule very similar to the one last year with Gromyko—a photo session, the meeting in the oval office, and lunch in the private quarters. He asked about the length of your meeting. I said it was not finally set, but we hoped for the same as last year.
On Geneva, Dobrynin said Gorbachev welcomed the chance to start with a brief private meeting with you. We agreed this would be a useful opportunity for the two of you to meet and make some points [Page 321] privately. Dobrynin also talked elliptically about negotiating a communique. I told him the question of negotiating some sort of joint statement before the meeting depended on whether we had made sufficient progress by then to warrant it. He also confirmed that Mrs. Gorbacheva will go to Geneva, and I handed over Mrs. Reagan’s letter to her.3
I again made the point that we prefer the Swiss idea of a single meeting place in Geneva rather than alternating sites. Dobrynin seemed to be somewhat confused about whether this would mean you and Gorbachev would stay at one villa. I set him straight on what we had in mind. He promised to ask Moscow once again if they would consider a single meeting place.
Dobrynin said they proposed my talks with Shevardnadze in New York concentrate on security issues and that we take up regional and bilateral issues in our Friday meeting in Washington. I suggested that we start with arms control/security issues and then move down our agenda, covering as much as we could in New York and the rest here. I also told him we would have two hours for the Friday afternoon session before my informal dinner for Mr. and Mrs. Shevardnadze in the evening.
I protested the latest MLM incident in Germany, noting that the incident on Saturday once again reinforced the impression that Soviet political authorities do not sufficiently control their own military. I also complained about their apparent bureaucratic downgrading of our upcoming consultations in Moscow on East Asian issues. Dobrynin said he had nothing on the MLM incident. He expressed surprise that Moscow was talking about less time for the meeting between Paul Wolfowitz and his opposite number and said he had sent back an inquiry after our complaint yesterday.
We agreed to meet again early next week.
- Source: Reagan Library, Jack Matlock Files, Meetings with USSR Officials, Meetings—Shultz-Gromyko-Dobrynin Hartman-Gromyko 1985 (3). Secret; Sensitive. Another copy of this memorandum indicates it was drafted by Pascoe on September 10 and cleared by Parris and Palmer. (Department of State, Ambassador Nitze’s Personal Files 1953, 1972–1989, Lot 90D397, 1985)↩
- Presumably Shultz was referring to a September 7 MLM incident. During the September 10 Department briefing, the spokesman responded to a query about the incident explaining that “one of our MLM teams was detained for several hours on September 7 after their vehicle got stuck in a ditch.” (Telegram 278329 to all European diplomatic posts, September 11; Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D850643–0109) Regional discussions on East Asian issues were scheduled to take place September 12–13 in Moscow. (Telegram 19178 from Tokyo, September 16; Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D850883–0816)↩
- Not found.↩