Bill Clinton Thanks Ex-Reagan Aide Massie For Helping Prepare for Yeltsin Meeting- Letter

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2022) Former US President Bill Clinton in his letter to US writer and scholar on Russia, Suzanne Massie, who served as an adviser to President Ronald Reagan, has thanked her for helping with preparations for a meeting with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and called that summit extremely positive.

Massie shared with Sputnik a number of letters with former American leaders. The correspondence has never been made public and is being published for the first time.

"I would like to help you for your help in my preparations for meetings with President Yeltsin in Vancouver," Clinton said. "I appreciated hearing your views on the historic opportunities and challenges that lay before us in our relations with Russia. Your expertise on Russia's political dynamics was particularly helpful in the days before the Vancouver Summit. My meetings with President Yeltsin were extremely positive and productive. I recognize, however, that the summit was but a prelude to the great challenges we face in our efforts to support Russia's reforms."

Clinton also expressed hope in that letter that Massie will continue to give him advice on these issues in the months and years ahead.

In another letter, Clinton thanked Massie for her advise on his speech in Annapolis, which he finished with the lines from the poem of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

Massie also shared with Sputnik two letters from President Ronald Reagan.

The first letter was sent to her On February 15, after the funeral of the leader of the Soviet Union Yuri Andropov.

"I waited to answer your letter until after your return from the Soviet Union.

In the meantime a great change occurred there. I dare to hope there might be a better chance for communication with the new leadership," Reagan said. "Watching scenes of the funeral on tv, I wondered what thoughts people must have at such a time when their belief in God or immorality is faced with death. Like you, I continue to believe that the hunger for religion may yet be a major factor in bringing about a change in the present situation."

In the second letter Massie shared on Tuesday, Reagan thanks her for the preparations for the Moscow Summit in 1988.

On Wednesday, Massie was presented with the medal of the Russian Foreign Ministry "For Contributions to International Cooperation", signed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

At the end of September, Massie visited the Presidential library in St. Petersburg, Russia, and discussed handing over her archive to the institution.

Massie's collection includes Reagan's personal letters, her correspondence with US President Bill Clinton, Vice President Albert Gore and other political and other personalities, including writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and choreographer George Balanchine.

The author's research papers and original manuscripts of her books on the history and culture of Russia are also included in the archive.

Massie advised Reagan on Russia from 1984-1988 and played a significant role in the final years of the Cold War. She taught the president the Russian proverb, "Trust, but verify," which Reagan famously used during the nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviet Union.

Massie is fluent in Russian and has written numerous books on Russia's history and culture.