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White House Diaries
May
16
1986
May 16, 1986
Friday, May 16, 1986
At staff meetings I took up matter of 5 Soviet soldiers (all 20 or 21 yrs. old) who deserted in Afghanistan & came over to the Freedom fighters. They want to come to America. All or each of them wrote me. Their letters came to me by way of a lady from “Freedom House.” I’m determined we should give them sanctuary. I’m told the problem is Pakistan through which they’d have to come to reach the U.S. Well I want to try. We had an N.S.P.G. meeting about how to break the deadlock on aid to the Contras in Nicaragua. Phil Habib reported on the meetings he’s held in Central Am. re the Contradora effort to get a treaty signed. Our Cong. is afraid the Sandinistas will sign & wont mean it & our aid would be wasted. I think the other way—the only way the Sandinistas can be brought around is if the Contras represent a threat.
My meeting with Sec. Shultz was wide ranging. He’s planning a trip to the middle East with some ideas of getting the Arab-Israeli peace talks on track. I agree. Saw 5 Ambas’s. & their familys off to their stations & called it a day. Nobody home when I got here—Rex is being operated on.
