White House Diaries

Friday, April 24, 1987

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Nancy due home today. In for the 9 A.M. day starter—the usual routine—nothing very exciting. Then N.S.C. at 9:30 Frank reported on situation in Congress where they are hanging amendments on bills having to do with the SALT II & A.B.M. treatys. Not only do those impinge on my prerogatives they are most helpful to the Soviets in our ongoing negotiations. I’m ready with a veto—in fact I can't wait.

Had a signing ceremony with some people who’ve been helping us in our effort to get some helpful provisions for victims of crime. I signed a proclamation making April 26 to May 2nd—Crime Victims Week.

After a lunch a preliminary meeting with our team preparing for the Ec. Summit in Venice. Then a meeting with Geo. S. This was on Middle East—King Hussein, P.M. Shamir & F.Min. Perez. He also gave me a report on efforts to trim down Embassy personnel. Problem is these are people serving Agencys other than State Dept.—such as Coast Guard Loran Team. State doesn’t have a say so over them & they resent efforts to reduce their numbers. We discussed the situation of Ambassador Barnes. Back in Carter Admin. his wife became entangled with a Romanian Driver who supposedly was romancing her out of State secrets. The whole case was investigated, the records sealed, & the Barnes’s reconciled. Now a defector from Romania has written a book & is telling this story. Mike Wallace apparently is going on 60 Min’s. this Sunday with it. It’s tragic & could destroy 2 peoples lives.

Phoned Dan Rostenkowski about representing me at a large traditional Fair in Poland in June. He said yes. We have a dinner scheduled tonite with members of the Board for my Library. Then Nancy & I are going to sneak out & head for Camp David. It’s the Secret Services idea. Some 40 or 50,000 screwy demonstrators are planning to surround the W.H. tomorrow. They thought (the S.S.) it might be nice if we weren’t here.

Our dinner party was most enjoyable. After dinner we change clothes—in about 10 min’s. & we are off to Camp D. It was raining & we had to drive up—got there about 11 P.M.