Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

428. Information Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs (Burt) to Secretary of State Shultz¹

Washington, undated

SUBJECT

• U.S. Policy Toward Albania

The Current Situation

Albania is the last piece of strategically valuable real estate in Europe open to relatively easy Soviet encroachment. The country’s one post-war leader, Enver Hoxha, is 75 and in poor health. This tiny Balkan country—the only Eastern European nation besides Yugoslavia with unimpeded access to the Mediterranean—is thus on the eve of its first leadership transition in over 35 years.

Since the late 1950’s, following Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin and rapprochement with Yugoslavia, Hoxha has scorned the USSR as well as the U.S. We have little information about his possible successors and their foreign policy views. We do know that Moscow has made repeated overtures to Tirana to normalize relations—most recently by Andropov in 1982. We can expect Moscow’s efforts to intensify when Hoxha leaves the scene.

While Albania refuses to deal with either the U.S. or the USSR, it has diplomatic relations with almost 100 countries, including all of Western Europe except the UK and the FRG. To date none of Albania’s ties with Western European countries has been close. But Tirana has recently made a number of moves toward the West. While these overtures may stem primarily from Albania’s economic needs, they nonetheless provide an opening we should exploit.

Our Policy Approach

Our strategy should be to maximize Western influence over Albania so as to keep it as free as possible from Soviet exploitation. For the foreseeable future, Hoxha’s antipathy toward the U.S. means that our allies must take the lead in direct dealings with Tirana. We therefore plan to:

— Make a major effort to persuade the allies (including Japan) to strengthen ties with Albania. Countries with non-resident representation should consider establishing small diplomatic missions in Tirana. At a minimum, non-resident ambassadors should visit Albania more often.

— Ask those countries with relatively good access to Tirana (e.g., the French, Italians, Greeks and Turks) to increase cultural and educational exchanges in addition to trade.

— Suggest that our allies promote tourism to Albania (U.S citizens are barred from the country).

To launch this consciousness-raising initiative, we will send a State [less than 1 line not declassified] team to Europe in the next few months. We will also:

— Pursue settlement of Albanian gold claims, together with the French and British. This could lead to normalization of British relations with Tirana and perhaps clear the way for initial U.S.-Albanian contacts.

We also plan to increase attention to Albania within the USG, including:

— Renewal of RFE broadcasts in Albanian, plus enlargement of VOA’s modest Albanian programming;

— Establishment of a U.S. information office, manned by an FSO, in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, to build Albanian language capability and area specialization;

— [less than 2 lines not declassified]

— Development of better information on Albania through seminars and meetings of government and academic specialists from the U.S. and abroad.

1. Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Country Files, Albania 1983–1985. Secret. Drafted on October 31, 1983, and revised on November 9 by Kuchel and Combs; cleared by Palmer and Burt. Sent through Eagleburger. Neither Burt nor Eagleburger initialed the memorandum.