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The U.S., of course, neither can nor should give any guarantees against demonstrations or defections. To answer any legitimate Soviet worries, however, Ueberroth and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the Spanish diplomat who heads the International Olympic Committee, flew from the Manhattan torch-carrying ceremony to Washington for a prearranged meeting with Ronald Reagan. It was already too late: even as they waited at New York City's La Guardia Airport for their chartered jet, they got the first indication of an actual Soviet pullout, news that was confirmed when they reached Washington. Nonetheless, they received from the President a letter pledging strict U.S. adherence to Olympic ideals. Reagan states in his letter to Samaranch: "I have instructed agencies of the Federal Government to cooperate fully with Olympic and local officials to ensure the safety of all participants ... The U.S. is totally committed to upholding the charter and fulfilling its responsibilities as the host nation of the Games." Samaranch hopes to convey the letter to Moscow this week, if he can get a requested appointment with Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko.
Chances that the letter, or anything else, will change the Soviets' minds before the June 2 deadline for an irrevocable decision seem about as minuscule as the chances of a 31-ft. long jump.* To the contrary, the rumor in both sports and diplomatic circles last week was that the Kremlin would try to organize a rival competition—a sort of Communist Olympics—some time this summer.
Competing games, of course, would further dim the symbolic flame of the official Olympics. That flame already is flickering low in the political winds that have been gusting for at least the past dozen years. The Los Angeles Games will be the fifth in a row marred by politics. The unhappy sequence began with riots outside and a black-power salute by U.S. athletes inside the 1968 Games in Mexico City and the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Games in Munich. It continued in 1976 with the boycott at the Olympiad in Montreal by black African nations that had unsuccessfully tried to get New Zealand expelled because one of its rugby teams had toured South Africa (which was barred from the Olympics after the 1960 Games because of its apartheid policies).