White House Diaries

Monday, August 10, 1987

View the President's Schedule

Again the schedule got moved around. It seems if I remember correctly this happens every year in those last few days before our Aug. vacation. Well anyway we started the day with our usual meeting—discussing Bill Verity & a possible foul up over some business deal years ago. Howard is going to check it out with Ed M. who is in S.F. Former Chf. Justice Burger is going to be a witness for Bork in the Sen. hearings. A little talk about the Central Am. Pc. proposal & some loopholes adverse to the Contras.

N.S.C.—Report our 3 Tankers & escort in the P. Gulf are laying back for a day off Bahrain. This was pre-planned to keep the Iranians off balance. TheCentral Am. Pc. plan is lousy. We’ve made a point by point comparison with one we & the Cong. had agreed to. Some of our Central Am. friends were looking to their own wants. Salvador & Guatemala have guerilla problems & their plan helps them with that—never mind what it does to the Contras.

Gen. Vessey checked in from his trip to Vietnam. He had a good report & it looks like real progress has been made toward getting information on our M.I.A.’s. We cancelled the issues lunch because Howard & others are meeting on my speech for Wed. nite. Then after lunch I met with them and we had a new draft that was better than the one I had yesterday.

Some desk time then at 2 p.m. a Cab. meeting Cap, Geo. & Frank brought everyone up to date on Central Am. & Persian Gulf. At 3 p.m. a signing of the Savings & Loan bill. Then a short meeting with Mr. & Mrs. Ruder. He’s the new boss at the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Then Bill Verity came in. I asked to take Mac’s job & he happily said yes. Then we went into the press room & announced his appointment. At 4:30 I met with the Citizens Network. This is a high powered group who involve other groups in a network to support our programs of foreign aid. This is a budget target for Cong. & they’ve slashed the h--l out of the new budget for our world wide program.

Then upstairs & finally back down to see the drs. again.