Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

Washington, July 13, 1981

At Tab A is a memorandum from Frank Carlucci to you,2 stating that:

—: Egypt wants to expand its relationship with us into a partnership.
—: Sudan has no air defense and fears a Libyan air strike. (The air defense situation is currently being improved through U.S. assistance.)
—: Tunisia has limited defenses, fears another Libyan incursion, and wants stepped up training, equipment deliveries, and joint exercises.
—: Morocco professes to heed our advice to seek a negotiated solution in the war with the Polisario in Western Sahara.
—: Algeria indicates that assurances we seek on the sale of our C–130 transport aircraft to them will soon be forthcoming.
—: Libya’s Qadhafi is vulnerable to our strategy that: 1) stresses the rising casualty rate from Libya’s invasion of Chad; 2) challenges Qadhafi’s territorial waters claims; 3) builds cohesion among anti-Qadhafi exiles; 4) convinces our West European friends to decrease their cooperation with Qadhafi; and 5) increases assistance to Libya’s threatened neighbors. Our Bay of Sidra exercise will send a signal to our friends that this strategy is being implemented, and that we mean business.3
—: Finally, the threat from Libya can only be met by our friends if we continue to provide them with military assistance and to display leadership in pressuring Libya to cease its threatening behavior.

Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Country File, Africa, Algeria (01/22/1981–01/22/1982). Secret. Sent for information. At the top of the memorandum, a stamped notation reads: “The President has seen.” Underneath this, Reagan wrote: “OK RR.” Carlucci’s trip took place during the third week of June.↩
Attached but not printed is Carlucci’s memorandum, dated June 25.↩
Documentation on U.S. exercises in the Gulf of Sidra is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. XLVIII, Libya; Chad.↩

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XXIV, North Africa