Diary Entry - 11/15/1982
Key Facts
The President and First Lady participate in an arrival ceremony in honor of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut and Mrs. Kohl.
President Reagan participates in a discussion with various Members of Congress and advisors about the MX missile decision.
The state funeral for Soviet leader Leonid Ilich Brezhnev is held in Moscow.
More flack from Paris but we’re not answering. We’ve told them if they are reneging for any reason about the E.W. Trade agreement take it up with all of us—not just the U.S. Briefing for the Kohl visit. This will be my 5th meeting with him but now he is Chancellor of the Fed. Repub. of Germany. We had the full ceremonial on a raw windy day. Our meeting was good. He is entirely different than his predecessor—very warm & outgoing. Mrs. Kohl is the same & very charming. We did hit it off and I believe we’ll have a fine relationship. No state dinner but a dinner for about 40 upstairs in our dining room. They felt very good about that & accepted it as something special. During the day I sandwiched in meetings with Lyn N. & another with John Tower re the MX. No doubt we’re going to have trouble—the Dems. will try to cancel out the whole system. It will take a full court press to get it. If we dont I shudder to think what it will do to our arms reduction negotiations in Geneva.
