White House Diaries

Monday, October 24, 1983

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This was really a Monday. Opened with N.S.C. brf. on Lebanon & Grenada. Lebanon gets worse as the death toll climbs. More bodies are found & more critically wounded die. Ambas. Hartman (Russia) came by. He confirms what I believe: the Soviets wont really negotiate on arms reductions until we deploy the Pershing II’s & go forward with MX. He also confirms that Andropov is very much out of sight these days. Phoned Tip & Howard B. to express hope they’d stay firm on keeping the Marines in Lebanon—both said yes. Lunch with Regional radio & T.V. news editors from all over the country. Karna had my table all women but me. It was pleasant. Then I did Q&A—it was all on Lebanon. The Pres. of Togo visited. He’s anti-communist & pro West. A meeting with the Joint Chiefs—they outlined the final details for our move on Grenada scheduled for 9 P.M. take off. No evidence of any moves by Cuba. Jack Anderson came by with some ideas about ed. & the lack of history in our schools. Also an idea to give people a chance to sound off about legitimate beefs with govt. We’re looking his ideas over. So far not even a tiny leak about the Grenada move. A whole flock of photo set ups but with some interesting people—Greg Harkins who makes oak rocking chairs—we have one at the ranch. This time he brought a double rocker. Donald Mitchell with copy of his book “Dallas—Love Affair With A City.” A Signing ceremony of a coin for La. World Fair. Winner of International Science Award—Laura Trouth an 18 yr. old freshman at Notre Dame. She has discovered a new & better way to classify & determine age of fossil reptiles. Harry Jackson brought me a handsome bronze for the Reagan museum. The leaders of the Nat. credit Unions, a very successful attractive woman business leader Mrs. June Collier who is a great supporter, John Dressendorfer and some newly arrived Ambassadors. But topping them all was Bill Morgan the blind young man who walked across the country from Idaho to Baltimore just to prove the handicapped shouldn’t be counted out. Then at 8 P.M. Tip, Jim Wright, Bob Byrd, Howard Baker, Bob Michel and all our gang met upstairs in the W.H. and we told them of the Grenada operation that would take place in the next several hours. We gave them the complete briefing. In the middle of the meeting Margaret Thatcher called. She’s upset & doesn’t think we should do it. I couldn’t tell her it had started. This was one secret we really managed to keep.