Clinton’s invitation to Adams sparked fury in UK
Blistering response from John Major to visit from ‘terrorist leader’ revealed in newly-released documents
THE DECISION of then-US president Bill Clinton to allow Gerry Adams into America in 1994 was met with fury from the British Government, newly released official files have revealed.
The Sinn Fein president was controversially granted a headline-grabbing visit to New York to speak at a conference on Northern Ireland between January 31 and February 2, nearly 25 years ago.
A blistering note from thenPrime Minister John Major’s Private Secretary Roderic Lyne sent to US national security adviser Tony Lake is part of about 500 Cabinet Office files released today by the National Archives in Kew, west London.
It reads: “The movement in which Gerry Adams has long been a leading figure has murdered not only thousands of its own countrymen, but also one member of our Royal Family, one Cabinet Minister’s wife, two close advisers to Margaret Thatcher and Members of Parliament, two British ambassadors – and small children in our shopping centres.”
Mr Clinton, who at the time had been President for about a year, took “full responsibility” for the decision which was described as a “difficult matter of judgment” in another file.
Mr Major wrote to Mr Clinton expressing dismay before the visit, according to a draft letter in which he said: “Tony Lake will, I am sure, have told you how strongly we disagree with the decision to admit Gerry Adams to the United States.
“He has been closely associated with terrorism for two decades. In the Joint Declaration, he was offered a route into the democratic process, and into negotiations with us and with the Irish Government. He and his movement have not taken it.
“As you will know the evidence is that the IRA intend to continue their strategy of terrorism, and do not have courage to make peace and compete in the democratic arena.”
Mr Clinton was under pressure from influential Irish-American politicians in the US, including Senator Edward Kennedy, who was named in multiple files as instrumental in pushing for Mr Adams’s admission. In a letter to the President in January, Senators Kennedy, John F Kerry – later Barack Obama’s Secretary of State – Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Christopher J Dodd, make the case for the visit.
The letter said: “While no-one can be certain that a visa for Mr Adams will result in the IRA’s accepting the condition estab-
The US cannot miss this rare opportunity to contribute to peace.
A letter from senators to Bill Clinton, urging him to permit Gerry Adams’ visit in 1994
lished by Ireland and Great Britain for participation in the peace process, the United States cannot afford to ignore this possibility and miss this rare opportunity for our country to contribute to peace in Northern Ireland.”
The note from Mr Lyne to Mr Lake added: “It is sad, paradoxical, and misguided of the Kennedys, having lost two brothers to acts of terror, to be pressing you to admit a terrorist leader without an end to terrorism or even a commitment to end terrorism.”
In separate government files from 1992, Mr Major is documented apologising to Mr Clinton after the Home Office inquired if the incoming US President had applied for UK citizenship while at Oxford University to dodge military service in Vietnam.
Mr Major said sorry for any “mischief” caused after a Press report cast the matter as the British government searching for “potentially damaging information” about Mr Clinton during the US presidential campaign.
On December 6, 1992, Mr Major wrote to President-Elect Clinton saying: “I hope the mischief will be short-lived.”
The same day a story had appeared in the Washington Post headlined: “Critics blast Major on file search.”
A government document from the released files explains the background to the issue, showing queries were first raised by a lobby reporter from a British newspaper.