White House Diaries

Wednesday, December 9, 1987

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Had a half hour to review points for todays meeting. Then briefing for meeting. At 10:30 went out to the drive to meet Gorby—(I should say Mikhail). We held still in the Oval O. for 5 waves of press & photos. Then I took him into my study. We had a brief talk then joined our teams in the Oval O. for a 2 hr. meeting. I led off on the 50% cut in I.C.B.M.’s—George S. & Frank C. added some remarks. Then the Gen. Sec. responded. We seem to be doing well on the 50% deal but then he brought up S.D.I. and while he didn’t link it to the treaty he still made an issue of it and suggested a 10 yr. abiding by A.B.M. treaty & then we should negotiate on whether we could deploy. Things got a little heated. We switched to regional problems—Afghanistan. I asked for a date certain for their leaving Afghanistan. He said he’d leave when we stopped helping the Mujahadeen. I pointed out we couldn’t do that unless the puppet govt. laid down their weapons. Well we agreed to put our teams to work on 50% deal & time was up. I took him over to the Dip. room to meet Raisa who was with Nancy. They took off for Lunch at St. Dept. I went back to office for lunch.

After Lunch a briefing for interview with 4 columnists. Interview went pretty well. Some desk time then meeting with several Repub. Sens. re the Budget plan & I.N.F. I let them know if some of the games re the plan went through I’d veto. We want the plan we agreed to. Phil Gramm was a bright spot—he came out for the 1st time in support of I.N.F.

Then it was home to clean up & go to Soviet Embassy for dinner. A very pleasant evening but dinner was pretty much the entire evening. I lost count of how many courses but they just kept coming. Brief entertainment after dessert—a Soprano from the Bolshoi Opera—Moscow then home.