Reagan's Secret Plans To Snub British Anti-Nuclear Labour Leader

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Revealed: Reagan's secret plans to snub Kinnock if he won the 1987 election

Dispatches show US diplomats were scathing about Labour foreign policy

See the declassified US documents

Rob Evans and David Hencke
Monday August 4, 2003
The Guardian

Ronald Reagan prepared secret plans to counter the prospect of the anti-nuclear Labour leader Neil Kinnock winning power in the 1987 general election.

Documents released to the Guardian show that American diplomats briefed the president on the two possible outcomes of the election: Mr Kinnock winning power; or Margaret Thatcher, with whom President Reagan was famously warm friends, achieving victory.

The letter prepared to be sent to Mrs Thatcher was eulogistic, while Mr Kinnock was to receive a colder and shorter missive concentrating on the prospect of the Labour leader expelling American nuclear weapons and bases from Britain.

For a Thatcher triumph, Mr Reagan planned to say: "I am absolutely delighted at your re-election victory. It is an historic achievement and a new ratification of your remarkable leadership ... As you know, I haven't been shy of telling people I'm one of your greatest fans."

...more > http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1011771,00.html