Declassified F97-013#29
By SMF, NARA, Date 5/17/00
National Security Council
December 24, 1984
SECRET
ACTION
MEMORANDUM FOR ROBERT C. McFARLANE
FROM: PETER R. SOMMER
SUBJECT: The President’s Meeting with Mrs. Thatcher: Gorbachev
During the private, tete a tete session, Charles Powell the British notetaker passed me the attached paper outlining Mrs. Thatcher’s impressions of Gorbachev and Soviet attitudes toward the Geneva talks (Tab A). [The two page (undated) British paper remains classified.] Mrs. Thatcher made a number of these points during the private talks, but the British paper is more specific and goes into greater detail than Mrs. Thatcher did with the President.
Powell enjoined with me not to give the British paper wide circulation within the USG. The British paper contains such interesting points as “Gorbachev made much of the difficulties the Soviet Union had faced in deciding to go to Geneva” and “he claimed that the Russians would be ready to come to Geneva with serious new proposals”.
RECOMMENDATION
That you review the British paper. [RCF did not annotate one way or the other.]
Attachment
Tab A Mrs. Thatcher’s Impressions
CC: Jack Matlock
Ron Lehman