Press Release

Office of the Historian
Foreign Service Institute
United States Department of State
December 7, 2023

The Department of State released today Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe.

This volume is part of a subseries of volumes of the Foreign Relations series that documents the foreign policy decision-making of the administration of President Ronald Reagan. It highlights U.S. policy toward each of the countries in Eastern Europe – with the exception of Poland, which is covered in two separate volumes. The documentation focuses on the Reagan administration’s efforts to manage its policy of differentiation, laid out in the September 1982 National Security Decision Directive 54, which declared that “the primary long-term U.S. goal in Eastern Europe is to loosen the Soviet hold on the region and thereby facilitate its eventual reintegration into the European community of nations.” The administration sought to do this by continuing “to differentiate in its policies toward the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe, and among the countries of Eastern Europe, so as to encourage diversity through political and economic policies tailored to individual countries.” The documentation shows that Eastern European officials struggled to understand the U.S. policy of differentiation, and that many sought to strengthen their country’s relationship with the United States to obtain better trade agreements, technology, and equipment, even as they endeavored to maintain their ties to the Soviet Union.

This volume was compiled and edited by Melissa Jane Taylor. The GPO S/N is 044-000-02709-7; the ISBN is 978-0-16-095932-5. For further information, contact history@state.gov.