White House Diaries

Sunday, April 7, 1985

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9 A.M. coffee with Sens. Dole & Domenici & Friedersdorf & Don R. & Dave Stockman to thank them for the budget compromise. Then Marine 1 & A.F.1 & on to the Ranch.

A few miles short of Pt. Mugu we encountered a fog bank. Upon landing we were told we might have to set the helicopter down at the Santa Barbara airport & go on by car from there. Just about at the airport we got word we should make a pass over the ranch just in case. We did and suddenly there was a hole in the fog & that hole was right at the helipad on Bald Mountain—we landed. By the time Nancy came—5 P.M. or so everything was clear. But the next day the ranch was socked in—no horse back ride—that was Sat.

On Sunday (Easter) the day was beautiful as was every day including Sun. the 14th—get away day.

Ron & Doria & C.Z. Wick came up for the afternoon & dinner on Easter. Bud McFarlane also spent part of day filling Ron in on the Soviet U. Ron has a mag. assignment to do a story on May Day in Moscow.

The rest of the vacation was as usual—beautiful weather, a horseback ride every morning & wood cutting & brush hauling with Barney & Dennis in the afternoons. There were some new additions—a day when Roy Miller & Fred Fielding came up with our Inc. Tax forms [. . .]

Then on 2 different days we interviewed applicants for Lees job—hired one Courtney Trissler. He was Henry Mudds foreman back when we had neighboring ranches in the Malibu mountains.

During most of the week—the press had a field day assailing me because I’d accepted Helmut Kohl’s invitation to visit a German mil. cemetery during our visit to Bonn. I had turned down a not official invite from a W. German politician to visit Dachau in his district. All of this was portrayed as being willing to honor former Nazi’s but trying to forget the Holocaust. Helmut had in mind observing the end of WW II anniversary as the end of hatred & the beginning of friendship & peace that has lasted 40 yrs.

I have repeatedly said we must never forget the Holocaust & remember it so it will never happen again. But some of our Jewish friends are now on the warpath. There is no way I’ll back down & run for cover. However Helmut is upset & thinks this may become such an uproar it will color the whole ec. summit. He may change the program—we’ll wait & see.

I still think we were right. Yes the German soldiers were the enemy & part of the whole Nazi hate era. But we won & we killed those soldiers. What is wrong with saying “let’s never be enemies again?” Would Helmut be wrong if he visited Arlington Cemetery on one of his U.S. visits?

Today Walter Annenberg called—his news wire had picked up a Pravda story lacing into me about their Jewish slight in my not going to Dachau. I want to respond to Pravda and point out that today 40 yrs. ago after the Holocaust, the Soviets are the only ones officially practicing anti-Semitism.

We’re back in Wash. & struggling to re-adjust after 8 wonderful ranch days.