Office of the Historian

70. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Bremer) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Allen)1

Washington, May 12, 1981

SUBJECT

  • May 11 NSC Memorandum on Romanian MFN Renewal2

We will provide you detailed comments on your memorandum as soon as possible, and Mr. John Scanlan will plan to discuss the matter at his meeting with Dr. Pipes this afternoon.

[Page 225]

Basically we believe the NSC memorandum misjudges the way in which MFN leverage can be brought to bear on the Romanians. Furthermore, the memorandum does not take into account the views of the major American Jewish organizations. For example, the President of B’Nai B’Rith International informed Ambassador Eagleburger on May 8, following his recent visit to Romania, that he was convinced that the best interests of Romania’s Jewish community were served by MFN renewal.

We strongly believe that the President should not discuss the question of MFN renewal in any explicit terms when he meets with the Romanian Foreign Minister briefly on May 15. The Secretary is sending the President a separate memorandum with his advice on that meeting.

L. Paul Bremer, III3
  1. Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Chron 5/19/81–5/28/81. Confidential.↩
  2. See Document 69.↩
  3. John H. Kelly signed for Bremer above Bremer’s typed signature.↩