Office of the Historian

228. Note From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Poindexter) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (McFarlane)1

Washington, December 3, 1984, 5:06 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Congressional Delegation with President

The President met today with the delegation back from Ethiopia.2 The Administration was roundly praised for what we are doing. It was a very positive meeting. But everybody recognizes that more needs to be done. Everybody agreed that Ethiopia was not the only problem. I talked to Bob Keating afterwards about speeding up the initiative that he has been working on.3 I am arranging through Bob Kimmitt to get Keating in to brief Shultz on Tues or Wed.4 He will brief Ed Meese tomorrow.5 I think we just about have everybody that counts on board. Peter was not very enthusiastic according to Keating, but I expect it is simply the not invented here syndrome.6 I am afraid if we don’t move rather rapidly on this it will eventually look like we are being dragged into it. Also there will be a tendency to want a supplemental that is much bigger than necessary without our initiative on the table. I think we should plan to take Bob up to brief the President on Thursday [Page 618] morning at the 0930.7 Then on Monday the President will see Charlton Heston and a group of African Food Aid.8 That might be a good opportunity to lift the curtain on our initiative.

The President told the group that he would have the WH office of Private Sector Initiative look into putting out a call for more private sector aid.

Also did you have a chance to talk to George9 about Bob Keating as a special envoy for African Emergency Food Aid?

  1. Source: Reagan Library, African Affairs Directorate, NSC: Records, AF Famine [12/03/84–12/31/84]. Secret. Copies to Levine, Ringdahl, Kimmitt, Fortier, and Van Eron.↩
  2. In telegram 5718 from Addis Ababa, November 29, the Embassy reported on a visit to Ethiopia by a congressional delegation that included Representatives Mickey Leland (D–TX), William H. Gray (D–PA), Edolphus Towns (D–NY), William Emerson (R–MO), Gary Ackerman (D–NY), Thomas Foglietta (D–PA), and Marge Roukema (R–NJ). (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D840762–0374) According to the President’s Daily Diary, Reagan met with members from the delegation on December 3 from 4:15 to 4:35 p.m. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary)↩
  3. Reference is presumably to Document 236.↩
  4. December 4 or 5.↩
  5. No record of this meeting has been found.↩
  6. In a December 10 message from Thompson, Kimmitt forwarded a message from McFarlane: “As you know we are pushing Bob Keating as the most able candidate to be the Administration’s point man on Food Aid to Africa. There are inevitable turf issues with AID on this and State as well. In addition we want to engender a private sector role with Bill Verity being the current favorite to coordinate the PS dimension. I have talked to Shultz on this and he wants to exploit Keating’s knowledge without offending Peter. That’s understandable. He would like to pursue a ‘brokering option’ in which he would ask Ed Derwinski to bring Peter, Bob K, and ultimately the private sector POC people together and establish a division of labor among them. This may work.” (Reagan Library, McFarlane Files, Chron [Official] December 1984 [1])↩
  7. December 6. According to the President’s Daily Diary, Reagan met with Bush, Keating, McFarlane, Poindexter, Levine, Baker, and Meese on December 6 from 11:46 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary)↩
  8. December 10. According to the President’s Daily Diary, Reagan “attended a briefing on the Ethiopian famine situation by a delegation from the American Red Cross, who recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia,” on December 10 from 1:48 to 2:08 p.m. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary)↩
  9. In a December 4 memorandum to Poindexter, McFarlane wrote: “I have talked to Shultz twice about Bob. He is getting the message and we should push for the briefing. I will also reinforce again with him. The briefing for the President is also good.” (Reagan Library, African Affairs Directorate, NSC: Records, AF Famine [12/03/84–12/31/84])↩