White House Diaries

Monday, June 18, 1984

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Pres. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka arrived. We had the usual mil. ceremony. This time however I went out before his arrival & thanked the troops. The day was hot & muggy 11 people passed out including some of our mil. during the ceremony. We had good meetings—one on one in the Oval office & then the plenary in the Cabinet Room. At the end of that one we went out on the S. lawn where I was presented an 18 month old Elephant for the Nat. Zoo. She is a cute little thing only 34 inches high. The Pres. is a good man. He believes in pvt. enterprise & we’re working to help him bring investment to Sri Lanka. He’s faced too with a Northern Ireland kind of situation with a minority of Tamils wanting to break away & form a new country. Their tactics are terrorism. Then in the evening a State Dinner—his toast was very moving & eloquent & he ad-libbed. It was an enjoyable evening & Frank Sinatra sang. The rest of the day before the dinner was busy. I did a Q&A with about 130 Teen Age Repub. leaders in the Rose Garden. They were a great group of young people. Barry Goldwater came by—I share his concern which is the extent to which Congress is interfering with the Presidents Const. duty to run foreign policy. He favors making a case & trying to get a Supreme Ct. decision canceling the War Powers Act. Rcvd. a half dozen new Ambassadors. Cap Weinberger came by—he’s concerned it would not be to our advantage to discuss an antiweapon in space treaty with the Soviets. We are making progress on a defense against nuclear missiles. Then an hour & a half in the dentists chair—2 fillings replaced.