White House Diaries

Thursday, May 16, 1985

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Bill Casey came in to explain about the Wash. Post story that broke this week about the March car bombing in Lebanon in March that killed so many people. The story was that the C.I.A. had trained the bombers in anti-terrorist tactics & this was the result. C.I.A. tried to tell them the story wasn’t true but the Post went ahead with it. Well it wasn’t true. [. . .] Pres. Duarte of El Salvador came by—We had a good but short meeting. He’s totally supportive of what we’re doing in Nicaragua.

The V.P. & I had lunch in my new den (used to be Mike D’s. office). Until Mike it had always been part of the Oval office suite. At Holmes Tuttles request I met with 4 oil men from the West. They are concerned about our tax reform plan and it’s suggested changes in taxes on the energy industry. Well so are we, but we’ve modified the proposal greatly. They had a proposal which we’ll study very carefully.

An ec. policy meeting with the council. Much time spent on textiles & our protective quotas. We’re getting a lot of heat that we must do something to curb imports of textiles. Frankly they are crying wolf & they aren’t hurt that bad. They close a plant because it’s old and no longer profitable—then blame the closing on imports. There are 28,000 mills in the U.S.

A 5 P.M. reception—East Room for 500 of the movers & shakers who will attend the Sen. Cong. dinner tonite. It will be the biggest Repub. fund raiser in the history of the party. And it was—4000 people—2 head tables at opposite ends of the hall so far apart you couldn’t identify those opposite you.