Office of the Historian

119. Memorandum From Secretary of State Shultz to President Reagan1

Washington, February 8, 1988

1. Gorbachev Statement on Afghanistan. In an unprecedented policy statement Monday, Gorbachev tackled the tough issues on Afghanistan.2 He addressed US concerns by offering a 10-month withdrawal timetable, beginning May 15, to include unspecified frontloading and phasing measures (this timetable presumes a Geneva agreement by March 15). He signaled to the Kabul regime that Soviet troops would not return—if fighting continued after Soviet withdrawal, it could be handled by the UNSC. To steel the Soviet people to a withdrawal without victory, he invoked Lenin to justify peaceful relations with a non-communist Afghanistan and underscored the nation’s duty to provide for vets and the families of slain soldiers. Gorbachev’s declaration challenges the US, and also Zia, to either work from the Soviet offer or bear the onus for blocking settlement of the war.

Ambassador Dubinin urged rapid completion of the Geneva agreements on the basis of Gorbachev’s new proposal at lunch Monday with Mike Armacost. Mike reminded him of Shevardnadze’s reference to a completion of Soviet troop withdrawal before the end of 1988, emphasized the importance of pinning down details such as frontloading, phasing, troop disengagement, and monitoring arrangements, and put down a marker that Soviet aid to the Kabul regime should cease with commencement of the withdrawal process. On the issue of interim government, Mike argued that creation of an interim government would enhance stability, facilitate Soviet troop withdrawal, encourage the return of refugees, and diminish prospects of a bloodbath. Mike agreed, however, that completing a Geneva agreement is a central objective and that responsibility for an interim government must rest with Afghans. (C)

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Shultz Papers, Memoranda for the President (01/27/1988–02/08/1988). Confidential. There is no indication that Reagan saw the memorandum.↩
  2. Reference is to Gorbachev’s speech in which he announced that the Soviets would withdraw from Afghanistan within one year. (“Text of Gorbachev Statement Setting Forth Soviet Position on Afghan War,” New York Times, February 9, 1988, p. A14)↩