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White House Diaries
October
05
1981
October 05, 1981
Monday, October 5, 1981
I hate Mondays. This was one that didn’t stop. First off—over to the Exec. Off [Ofc.] Bldg. to do a Q&A with 70 out of town—in fact from all over the country—Editors & Radio news editors. Then to the Sheraton to address the Nat. Assn. of Bus. on Volunteerism. They were enthusiastic. I think we’ll really take the lead in this. Lunch was a 1st for the W.H. There were 28 former Nat. Security Officials from Admins. all the way back to Truman all came to join in support of A.W.A.C.S. Henry Kissinger & former Sec. of Defense Harold Brown (under Carter) both spoke to the press endorsing the sale. A moving ceremony in the First Lady’s Garden. I signed the bill making Raoul Wallenberg the 2nd honorary citizen in our history. He is the Swede who saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. Then with the war over the Soviets kidnapped him & evidence is he’s still alive in the Gulag. Now that he’s a citizen of the U.S. we intend to ask for his return. His brother & sister were present. Cong. Tom Lantos was there—he wrote the bill. Tom was one of those saved by Wallenberg—he was 16 at the time. Finally a meeting on Cancun and how to keep from being the villain there. We do more for the under developed nations than anyone in the world but they act as if we’re out to destroy them and they never say boo to the Soviets.
