White House Diaries

Wednesday, June 17, 1987

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Staff meeting & N.S.C. kind of ran together—much discussion of the Persian Gulf. Charges are being made that we are being frivolous in basing some naval vessels there & running unnecessary risks of casualty. I brought up the fact that our Naval Strategy since W.W.I has been to base elements of the fleet all over the world where are nat. interests are involved. We’ve based ships & planes there in the Gulf & the Arabian sea for 38 yrs. I’ve proposed explaining this to the people on Saturdays radio cast.

Some briefing for meeting with Pres. Arias of Costa Rica. He has a peace proposal he wants to make on behalf of his Central Am. Neighbors & us to the Sandinistas. We’re in favor of the idea but believe his plan has some loopholes the Sandinistas could take advantage of to get rid of the Contra threat & hold on to their power. Meeting with him was to take 15 min’s. It took 45 & we went round & round. I don't know whether I sold him but our guys thought I did well.

Lunch on the patio then photos with 5 of our outbound Ambassadors & their families. A meeting with Cap W.—I persuaded him to notify the Soviets of our missile test but not to mention we were doing it as a requirement of SALT II Treaty. For us SALT II does not exist.

Then out to the S. Lawn—the annual affair of the 140 Presidential Scholars, their teachers & familys. That’s always a nice event—those 140 high school kids always look so bright & fresh.

Then a taping session for a half dozen events—a Happy Birthday call to Holmes Tuttle & a call to Ed Meese in Vienna. I’m leaning toward appointing Sen. DeConcini (Dem.) to Dir. of F.B.I. A lot of our Senators want this very much & truth is he’d be replaced by Repub. Sen. I’ve just made the call to Ed & he really cooled me down on the Sen.—maybe that is not the way to go. Ed will be home next week & we’ll talk about it.

Well a quick jump in the gym, the shower, early dinner, & to the Sheraton Hotel to do a fund raiser for Orrin Hatch. He raised $530,000. I was home at 8:20 P.M.