The Williamsburg economic summit conference will be a meeting not only for the present to help broaden the worldwide economic recovery – but also for posterity, President Reagan said yesterday as he arrived in Virginia’s Colonial capital for a four-day stay. Reagan told reporters assembled on the rear lawn of Providence Hall, the 18th century home where he will stay during his visit, that world economic recovery “is what this summit is all about.” “We’re convinced that the growing convergence of domestic economic policies among the countries to be represented here will help sustain recovery and expand it to the rest of the world,” he said. He said the allies are proving world “inflation is increasingly under control,” and added, “We can turn our attention to such problems as protectionism and unemployment. “At same time, we can lay the basis for growth among the less developed countries, in whose welfare and prosperity we all have an important stake,” he said. Reagan’s tone thoughout the day was one of optimism, especially in regard to the American economy.
Before leaving for Williamsburg, he told a group of foreign reporters in Washington that the U.S. trade deficits were the result of a strong dollar, and that U.S. budget deficits of nearly $200 billion annually would be countered by a strong economic recovery.
Meanwhile – the Summit was bringing out a number of concerns for the Western allies – The Kremlin threatened today to follow suit if Washington put more missiles in Europe, and said it might aim some at the United States. A statement issued by the official news agency TASS also hinted that Moscow might for the first time – spread some of the new missiles around the other Warsaw Pact countries. The Soviet Union has often said it would retaliate if Washington went ahead with its plan to station Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles this year in Western Europe. But this was the first time it said what form its retribution would take. A senior official of the Reagan ad- administration, however, dismissed the threats as a Kremlin scheme to sow dissension among the United States and its European allies. The Reagan administration has said it would deploy its Pershing and cruise missiles in Europe if its talks in Geneva with the Soviets on arms reduction proved fruitless.
And word from Lebanon that heavy shelling and rocket fire erupted in the hills behind Beirut during the night and a number of shells hit the city itself. Lebanese security officials and witnesses said early today. About 10 heavy artillery rounds thumped into Beirut’s Christian Ashrafiyeh district, just east of the old so-called green line where most of the 1975-76 civil war fighting took place. The shells rocked a area, throwing up plumes of smoke. and awakened residents throughout the capital.
The security officials said the number of casualties was not yet known but it was certain there would be some. shelling a and rocket fire stopped shortly before 6 a.m. The (midnight EDT Friday night), security officials said. The right wing Phalangist radio said at least eight people wounded in Beirut in the surrounding hills. The shelling was between Christian and Moslem areas, mostly in the Aley hillside region and the Shouf mountains a kilometres higher up and farther inland.
It was apparently coming from positions held by either right-wing Christian militias or their leftist rivals – mostly from the Progressive Socialist party – in Druse Moslem areas.
And while the summit was getting underway that’s just a small portion of what else went on, this May 28, 1983 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
