Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Letter to Jeff Rooker MP (Moscow Olympics)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: No.10 Downing Street
Source: Thatcher Archive
Editorial comments:
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 350
Themes: Foreign policy (Asia), Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Sport

Dear Mr. Rooker,

Thank you for your letter of 19 February about your two constituents who have been planning a holiday visiting the Olympic Games this Summer. I can appreciate the dilemma they must be in over the planned trip and the money they have invested in it.

The Government have indeed taken this difficult aspect into account in our discussions about our attitude to the Games in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It is one of the reasons why we pressed from the start for the removal of the Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from the Soviet Union. If that had been done, the money already deposited by your constituents and many other people would have been legally returnable. It would then have been open to them to make arrangements to travel instead to the new location, if they so wished.

As it is, the IOC has decided to go ahead with the Games in Moscow, but we remain firmly of the view that they should be removed. If the Games go ahead as planned, we feel it incumbent upon us to discourage visitors such as spectators from going to Moscow, and we very much hope that they will take this advice. [end p1] We are asking our athletes to make this sacrifice as citizens who should consider the implications of involvement in what would be for the Russians a political propaganda exercise. It would be illogical not to ask tourists to make their contribution by also refusing to attend.

We are, of course, only advising, and the decision, particularly that of conscience, about going to Moscow must be taken by the people concerned themselves. We would, therefore, be under no contractual or statutory obligation to those who sustain financial loss. A parallel would be advice regularly given by the Foreign Office to intending travellers and businessmen about visiting the more unstable countries in times of upheaval. This is not to say that we do not sympathise with those placed in this position, but we must remember that it is the Soviet Union who have brought the situation about by invading a neighbouring independent state, Afghanistan.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Thatcher