White House Diaries

Friday, March 25, 1988

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A little discussion of some of the Sens. who seem to be voting against me—such as on the veto override. Then the I.N.F. treaty & Sen. Pete Wilson’s attack on it etc.

N.S.C.—Balaguer—(Pres. Dominican Republic) briefing—he’s visiting us. He is almost totally blind & only walks with the help of an aid. The main briefing on this came later in the morning. This meeting Colin brought up some of our friends who want to be part of our official trip to Soviets—Paul Laxalt, Armand Hammer, Suzanne Massey etc. We have to say no to each one. No one we could say yes to without having to take the others.

Then some talk of our Sugar program & how we’ve cut back on imports that hurt countries such as Dominican Repub.

Nicaragua—evidence that Contras gave in to Sandinistas in agreement because no longer believe they can trust us. All due to Congress shutting off aid.

A bit of desk time—then briefing for Balaguer. He arrived at 11:30—usual press coverage, then he & I had a brief 1 on 1. Into the Cab. room for the plenary & lunch in the Roosevelt room. His lunch was a glass of orange juice. It was a good meeting all the way. His feeling of loyalty to us is enthusiastic & solid.

After he left the Arch Bishop of Greek Orthodox church Archbishop Iakovas & others came in for my signing of Proclamation making this Greek day in Am.

Then over to E.O.B. to address & take Q’s. from “Center for study of the Presidency.” I took Q’s. from students—2 of the young people were from Eureka College.

Then Geo. S.’s regular meeting. He started with Nicaragua & feels strongly that we must have an aid program fast & a fast track clause that we can if called upon provide lethal aid. On Noriega he proposed additional things we can do. One would be to get Pres. Delvalle to announce a post Noriega govt. He asked me to O.K. another mid-east trip over Easter so he can explain to the people there what’s in our peace plan.

Sat.—tomorrow he is meeting with 2 distinguished scholars who are Americans—but also Palestinians. Shamir is very upset with him. Last item is—for some reason King of Saudi Arabia is on the outs with our Ambas. who is a darn good man. We’ll bring him home though & nominate a replacement. He speaks flawless Arabic & for some reason this upsets the Arabs.

A farewell photo of David Chew & wife & baby—he’s going out in the pvt. world.

That did it—upstairs for exercise & evening. Part of eve. I’ll be alone. Nancy has to do a publicity thing for “drugs” at the Hockey game. I watched it on T.V.—she appeared on the ice with a group of young people & the mascot snoopy—spoke of the contribution to the drug fight the Hockey league is making. Then she took a hockey stick & sailed 2 goals past the goalie. It was very nice & the crowd loved it.