396. Note From the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (West) to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (Iklé)1
Washington, September 24, 1982
Fred—
State sent out a cable lifting (on 24 Sept.) the sanction on the FMS pipeline to Argentina.2 No public announcement is planned. State did not coordinate with us. I remonstrated. State apologized, admitting the error. No calculated oversight was intended. State was treating the action as routine because it had been discussed for several months at various levels between our two buildings.
Francis J. West,
Jr.3
- Source: Washington National Records Center, OSD Files, FRC 330–84–0003, Argentina (June–Sept) 1982. Confidential. A copy was sent to Major General Smith. A stamped notation on the note indicates that Weinberger saw it on September 27.↩
- Attached but not printed is a copy of telegram 265773 to Buenos Aires, September 21, which informed the Embassy that it was authorized to inform the Argentine Government that the United States intended to lift military sanctions against Argentina effective September 24. Speakes announced at the September 28 White House press briefing that the sanctions had been lifted. (“U.S. Easing Curbs Against Argentina,” New York Times, September 29, p. A12)↩
- West initialed “FJW”above his typed signature.↩