Office of the Historian

158. Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan1

Washington, April 20, 1982

1. Falklands Dispute. The OAS Permanent Council today approved the Argentine request to convene an Organ of Consultation (Meeting of Foreign Ministers) under the Rio Treaty, beginning next Monday.2 Eighteen of the twenty-one Rio Treaty signatories voted in favor; the U.S., Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago abstained. In explaining our abstention, Bill Middendorf questioned whether the Argentine request [Page 344] was useful at a time when we were still striving to promote a peaceful settlement. Bill also stressed our view that the OAS should use the peaceful settlement mechanisms of the OAS Charter rather than the Rio Treaty, with its collective security emphasis.3 (U)

2. Dobrynin on Falkland Islands and U.N. Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD). Dobrynin delivered to Larry Eagleburger this afternoon the Soviet reply to our April 16 demarche on the Falkland Islands.4 Predictably the Soviets denied media distortion of our role in the crisis and dismissed our warning against Soviet involvement as inappropriate.5 On the SSOD, Dobrynin said it was 90–95 percent certain that Brezhnev would not attend the session. Dobrynin wondered if your invitation could be extended to Gromyko; Larry doubted it. (C)

[Omitted here is a paragraph on issues unrelated to the South Atlantic conflict.]

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Agency File, Secretary Haig’s Evening Report (03/25/1982–04/21/1982). Secret.↩
  2. Argentina requested an urgent meeting of the OAS Council the evening of April 19. In OAS Resolution 360, April 21, the Permanent Council agreed to convene an Organ of Consultation on Monday, April 26. The text of the resolution is in the Department of State Bulletin, June 1982, p. 85.↩
  3. Middendorf’s statement is printed ibid., pp. 84–85.↩
  4. See Document 135.↩
  5. The text of the Soviet reply to Eagleburger’s April 16 démarche, delivered by Dobrynin, was transmitted by the Department to Moscow in telegram 106876, April 21. (Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Cable File, Falkland File 04/21/1982)↩