Archive

Archive (Reagan Library)

Cold War: Thatcher letter to Reagan (Poland) [declassified 2000]

Document type: Declassified documents
Venue: 10 Downing Street
Source: Reagan Library: NSA Head of State File (Box 35)
Editorial comments: Declassified 27 March 2000.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 163 words
Themes: Foreign policy (Central & Eastern Europe), Foreign policy (USA), Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Foreign policy (Western Europe - non-EU), MT contacts with Ronald Reagan

Declassified F96-107#116
By SMF, NARA, Date 3/27/00

10 Downing Street
The Prime Minister

Secret

22 December, 1981

Dear Ron,

Thank you for your message of 19 December. It was very useful to have your own assessment of the complex and difficult situation we face in Poland.

I agree that the way things are moving in Poland presents us with serious problems and difficult decisions. It is essential that the Western response should be both firm and coordinated. The detailed discussions in progress in Brussels today should give us a clearer idea of the options open to us, and we must continue to keep in close touch.

Like you we have been adjusting our public stance progressively to the developments in Poland. I took the opportunity in the House of Commons today to make clear our condemnation of the detentions and shootings in Poland.

Yours ever,
Margaret

The President of the United States of America

[In MT’s own hand:]

Happy Christmas.