Office of the Historian

179. Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Armacost to President Reagan1

Washington, May 11, 1988

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Algeria.]

4. Whitehead in Algeria. John Whitehead stopped in Algeria May 10–11 on the first leg of a brief North Africa trip. The Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry claimed the Arabs would neither criticize nor support our Middle East peace initiative at their June 7 Summit in Algiers.2 John made it very clear that we want the Kuwait Air hijackers, whose whereabouts remain unclear, brought to justice.3 John also expressed deep disappointment that he had been unable to meet with President Bendjedid during the visit to deliver your letter on key international issues.4

  1. Source: Reagan Library, George Shultz Papers, President’s Evening Reading April–June 1988. Secret. Shultz was in Geneva to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze to discuss INF verification procedures.↩
  2. The conversation about regional issues, including the administration’s Middle East peace initiative, is in telegram 2759 from Algiers, May 10. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D880787–0184, D880404–0338)↩
  3. In telegram 2760 from Algiers, May 10, the Embassy reported that Whitehead told Hamdani that although the “U.S. does not want this issue [the hijacking] to upset our relations with Algeria,” he nevertheless conveyed the United States wanted “to make very clear in the strongest terms that it is extremely important that the hijackers be brought to justice for the criminal actions they perpetrated. The hijackers are criminals. They murdered. If such criminals get away with these actions, more hijackings are certain to follow and Americans—as well as other nationalities—will be affected.” (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D880407–0144)↩
  4. In telegram 2758 from Algiers, May 10, the Embassy reported that Whitehead had told Abdelghani that “failure to meet the Chief of State had never happened to him before during his travels and he regarded it as a slap in the face for himself and President Reagan.” (Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S Records, 1988 Nodis Telegrams: Lot 94D552, Algiers 1988 Nodis) Reagan had written Bendjedid that while he “joined nations around the world in welcoming the safe release of the passengers held hostage aboard the hijacked Kuwaiti jet,” he nevertheless believed “that the perpetrators of these crimes must be brought to justice, because until they are caught and prosecuted, the potential remains for them to strike other innocent victims again. Hijackers are criminals, and must be dealt with as such.” (Telegram 147397 to Algiers, May 7; Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D880396–0139)↩