Office of the Historian

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

Washington, May 12, 1988

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Tunisia.]

4. Whitehead Visit to Tunisia. During his visit to Tunisia May 11–12,2 John Whitehead presented President Ben Ali with your letter inviting him to Washington in September.3 John signed a $15 million Food for Peace agreement and the U.S.-Tunisian Consular Convention. He also announced the revitalization of the U.S.-Tunisian Joint Economic Commission.

  1. Source: Reagan Library, George Shultz Papers, President’s Evening Reading, April–June 1988. Secret. Shultz was in Geneva meeting with Shevardnadze about INF verification procedures and the upcoming Reagan-Gorbachev summit scheduled for May 29–June 2.↩
  2. A record of the Whitehead-Ben Ali meeting, which the Embassy described as “characterized on both sides by friendship and common sense,” is in telegram 5195 from Tunis, May 16. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D8803418–0605)↩
  3. See Document 363.↩