1984 Summer Olympics boycott

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The boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles followed four years after the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The boycott involved nineteen countries: fifteen from the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union, which initiated the boycott on May 8, 1984, and four other countries which boycotted on their own initiatives. The boycotting countries organized another major event, called the Friendship Games, in July and August 1984. Although the boycott affected Olympic events that were normally dominated by the absent countries, 140 nations still took part in the Games, which was a record at the time.^[1][2]

Since the announcement by President Carter of the United States boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980,^[3] there was fear from United States officials that a reciprocal boycott could occur during the 1984 Games, scheduled for Los Angeles. The Soviets for their part gave sparsely few indications that this would happen, and indeed, from formalized talks which occurred over the course of three years, indicators seemed to point towards Soviet participation.^[4] Only in the last few months before the Games began did a sense of non-participation come about through Soviet statements and actions.^[5]

In December 1983, a meeting of officials representing the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC) and 14 members of the Soviet National Olympic Committee (Soviet NOC) took place in Los Angeles, resulting in the signing of a protocol agreement concerning Soviet expectations for participation.^{[6]: 172, 179} At that time, the chairman of the Soviet NOC, Marat Gramov, communicated his view of the upcoming Summer Games as being positive, and that he "saw no reason why the Soviet Union should not participate".^[7]: 18 One month later in January 1984, a second Soviet delegation visited Los Angeles to meet with the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s Executive Commission. This meeting was also viewed positively, with no mention of boycotts being made at that time.^[6]: 172 A final, positively-viewed meeting was held during the IOC's 87th Session on February 5, 1984, in Sarajevo, three days before the start of the Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. During that meeting, Soviet IOC member Konstantin Andrianov offered congratulations to the LAOOC, saying they were doing "a great job".^{[8]: 98–99} Four days later on February 9, 1984, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, died.

On March 2, 1984, the Soviet's proposed-Olympic attaché, Oleg Yermishkin, was denied an entry visa from the U.S. State Department, which identified him as an operational officer of the KGB.^[9] The LAOOC felt consternation towards the State Department's decision on what the LAOOC considered to be a "minor issue", saying that it should not have been at all surprising that the Soviets, who would later go on to express security concerns, would have wanted as their Olympic attaché, someone who was experienced in security matters directing the preparations for their team. After all, the LAOOC noted, the Israeli and Turkish delegations also had intelligence personnel involved as attachés in the preparations for their teams. LAOOC President Peter Ueberroth, relying on assurances he said he had received from the Reagan Administration, had told the Soviets in Sarajevo that Yermishkin would be acceptable and that they should go ahead and proceed formally with his visa application. Although preparations for Yermishkin's arrival had been ongoing for the past 5 months, the denial of his travel visa occurred on the very day he was set to travel to Los Angeles. U.S. Olympic Committee President William Simon said "it was the first time that I can recall where we really had egg on our face, where Ueberroth basically gave them his word that this was going to be the case and then had to retract it a couple of weeks later when Yermishkin was turned down. That's the one thing where the Soviets really had a right to be angry with us."^[10]: 217

On April 9, the Soviet NOC released their first statement voicing criticisms concerning preparations for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. In response, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch convened a meeting of the IOC Executive Commission on April 24, 1984 at the IOC main office in Lausanne.^[11] Peter Ueberroth attended as representative of the LAOOC, with Marat Gramov representing the Soviet NOC. During the meeting, Gramov revealed for the first time that the "Soviet NOC had received declarations and letters from various nationalistic and terrorist groups and organizations with threats".^[7]: 19 In light of these threats, Gramov made five requests of the LAOOC covering entry into the United States, security, Soviet delegation and media access to Olympic sites, the use of Aeroflot charter flights, and the use of the Soviet cruise ship MS Gruziya. According to the LAOOC, "the parties also discussed other minor matters and agreed that all matters regarding the participation of any NOC could be resolved through dealing directly with the LAOOC only."^[12] In addition, the Soviet NOC stated that it "intended to participate in the Games of the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles under the condition that the Olympic Charter is enforced". Both the LAOOC and the Soviet NOC agreed to communicate more often in the future. However, following the meeting, the LAOOC sent daily telexes to the Soviet NOC for several days, but received no response. The LAOOC stated that "although the meeting itself had been encouraging, the lack of response by the USSR NOC to these messages was a clear cause for worry."^[12]

On April 29, 1984, Gramov sent a letter to the Communist Party Central Committee in which he described the risk of anti-Soviet organizations using violence during the Games, therefore potentially encouraging participating Soviet athletes to come to their side. The document also included a statement that "participation in the Games would be difficult if the hostile activities were not ceased", and that the absence of the Soviet Union and other developing countries would "bring the first 'commercial Olympics' to economic catastrophe", and concluded that "if the [safety] conditions were not fulfilled, we will resign from participating".^[13] This was despite the fact that the Reagan Administration, according to Reagan aide Jack Matlock, had agreed to meet all Soviet requests for "facilities, press coverage, and treatment of Soviet athletes—short only of guaranteeing that there would be no defections by Soviet athletes, a guarantee that Reagan had no legal or moral right to give".^[14]: 90

The Soviet Union announced its intentions to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics on May 8, 1984, claiming "security concerns and chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States".^[15] United States Administration officials were quoted as saying that the American Embassy in Moscow as well as American intelligence agencies abroad misread signals for weeks that the Soviets might withdraw from the Games, despite the State Department saying they were "absolutely dumbfounded" when the official announcement arrived.^[16]

In the days following the Soviet announcement, six Eastern Bloc satellite nations in quick succession soon joined in, including Bulgaria,^[17] East Germany (on May 10),^[18] Mongolia and Vietnam (both May 11),^[19] Laos, and Czechoslovakia (both May 13).^[20]

Afghanistan declared its withdrawal on May 13, 1984, becoming the eighth country to announce a boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics.^[21] Hungary and Poland became the ninth and tenth Communist countries to announce boycotts. Hungary claimed the lives of its athletes would be put in danger if they were to spend time in Los Angeles, while Poland said the United States was engaging in a "campaign aimed at disturbing the Games".^[22]

On May 23, Cuba became the eleventh country to announce its participation in the boycott.^[23] The loss of Cuban athletes was expected to be especially critical in boxing and baseball competitions, prompting Ueberroth to make overtures in the media requesting meetings with Cuban Olympic officials.^[24] Ueberroth's eventual trip to Cuba was unsuccessful in persuading Cuban President Castro to rescind his boycott decision.^[25] According to David Israel, director of Ueberroth's office at the LAOOC and who accompanied Ueberroth on his trip to Cuba, the reason Castro's advisors gave for the boycott was that "in the 1960's, during the American embargo, when we stopped having diplomatic relations with them, the only teams they could find to compete with were the Eastern Bloc teams, and out of a sense of loyalty and to show solidarity, he [Castro] was going to boycott."^[10]: 231

South Yemen was the twelfth country to announce a boycott on May 27, stating that the organizers of the Los Angeles Olympics "ignore the provisions of the Olympic Charter, refuse to guarantee the safety of sportsmen, and first of all of those [sic] from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries".^[26]

Ethiopia announced on June 1 that it would join the Soviet-led boycott. The Soviet News Agency Tass, which communicated the boycott on behalf of the Ethiopian National Olympic Committee (NOC), stated that the step was taken "because the United States uses the games for purely political purposes against socialist and progressive states". Ethiopia's NOC added to the Tass statement that their boycott was also "a resolute protest in connection with the British government's refusal to cancel England's rugby union tour of South Africa".^[27] North Korea was the fourteenth nation to boycott the Olympics on June 3, giving their reason as being a lack of security for their athletes.^[28] A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency said that "taking into consideration the fact that the United States has been hostile and is hostile to us, we cannot but express increasing apprehensions for the personal safety of our sportsmen."^[29]

Angola, which had been the very last country out of 142 nations to officially accept their invitation to participate in the Summer Olympics, reversed course on June 27, announcing that they were pulling out because "the United States authorities are turning the Games into an arena of confrontation". In response, Ueberroth stated that the Soviets were "still trying every possible thing" to pressure more countries into joining their boycott.^[30]

Although originally associated with the Eastern Bloc, by 1968 Albania had moved to a position of non-alignment.^[31] In keeping with Albania's isolationism, the country did not attend any Olympic Games from 1976 to 1988, and was the only country that boycotted the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Politically, Albania allied with China after the Sino-Soviet split, remaining antagonistic towards the Soviet Union; however, it also opposed China's rapprochement with the United States in the late 1970s, resulting in the Sino-Albanian split.

A similar antagonism towards both superpowers had existed in Iran since 1979. In August 1983 Iran made its first announcement regarding the 1984 Games, saying it would boycott because of "United States interference in the Middle East, its support for the regime occupying Jerusalem, and the crimes being committed by the U.S.A. in Latin America, especially in El Salvador".^[32] On January 22, 1984, Iran reiterated its decision to boycott, with Iranian Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi saying "the 1984 Olympic Games of Los Angeles are a mask and facade created by supercilious world powers and the United States for disguising their hideous faces as a means of gaining publicity and whitewashing their crimes", with Mousavi noting that "Iran had boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest over the Soviet Government's occupation of Afghanistan and it would do the same with the Olympics-84 Games of Los Angeles in order to expose the criminal acts of the world-devouring U.S. Government."^[33]

Despite Upper Volta not having participated in an Olympics since 1972, that country's NOC announced on July 13, 1984, their withdrawal from the Games. Similar to Ethiopia, Upper Volta—which changed its official name to Burkina Faso on August 4, 1984—stated their reason as being due to England's rugby union tour of South Africa. However, this was their only reason given, and thus, Upper Volta's boycott was largely seen as being distinct from those of the Eastern Bloc nations.^[34]

Libya withdrew its entire sports delegation of six athletes two days before the start of the Games, apparently in retaliation for the American government's refusal to allow three of that country's journalists to cover the Games. Without elaboration, the official Libyan news agency only stated "The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya decided to withdraw from the Olympic Games in Los Angeles." A State Department spokesman said the journalists were denied visas under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act for "security reasons". In response, LA Games organizer Ueberroth stated "It is not for me to speculate whether they are journalists, it is the government's decision. As a private corporation we respond to government action."^[35] Libya and Ethiopia were the only nations not to attend both the 1976 Montreal and 1984 Los Angeles Games.

On May 28, 1984, the president of the Salvadoran Olympic Committee, Valerio Montes, warned that El Salvador might be forced to join the Soviet-led boycott if the $28,000 entry fee required of its athletes were not raised by the June 2 deadline, a figure which Montes doubted "could be raised in time". The IOC had previously offered to pay all expenses for six Salvadoran athletes, but Montes noted that the Salvadorans would refuse the funds in principle in order to show the Salvadoran Government "that it must pay more attention to the nation's youth and sports' programs". Referring to the $62 million recently approved by the U.S. Government for military aid to El Salvador, Montes suggested a possible solution whereby President Reagan and the American Congress would "order the armed forces to give us less than one percent of what has been designated for weapons to be able to participate in the Games".^[36] In response, spokesman Donald Hamilton of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador declined to provide any funds, stating that "since we don't fund our own athletes, we don't see how we could fund those from a foreign country". Montes was instead advised by the embassy spokesman to pursue financial aid from local sources or from the IOC.^[37] Ten athletes from El Salvador eventually competed at the Games.

On June 3, 1984, Bolivian President Hernán Siles Zuazo stated in a communique that Bolivia's 14 member delegation would not be allowed to travel to L.A. for the Games due to an economic crisis.^[38] The decision sparked widespread protest among Bolivian sports officials and members of Bolivia's political opposition, who charged the real motive was pressure from the Bolivian Communist Party—at that time a member of the government's ruling coalition—to join the Soviet led boycott.^[39] The decision was rescinded once sufficient funding was achieved, however, when an article written by Tony Kornheiser of The Washington Post making light of poverty in Bolivia caused indignation from Bolivians believing the article "offended the dignity of our country", President Zuazo declared a boycott of the Games.^[40] After The Washington Post issued an editorial apology, President Zuazo reversed the boycott decision, and eleven athletes from Bolivia eventually competed at the Games.^[41]

Listed by chronological order of their withdrawal, not by alphabetical or any geographical order.

•  Soviet Union
•  Bulgaria
•  East Germany
•  Mongolia
•  Vietnam
•  Laos
•  Czechoslovakia
•  Afghanistan
•  Hungary
•  Poland
•  Cuba
•  South Yemen
•  Ethiopia
•  North Korea
•  Angola

Four other countries also boycotted the Games. Two of those countries—Iran and Upper Volta—cited political reasons while the other two—Albania and Libya—provided no explanations whatsoever. None were part of the Soviet-led boycott:^[42]

(Listed by chronological order of their withdrawal)

•  Albania
•  Iran
•  Upper Volta /  Burkina Faso
•  Libya

The Soviets' main cited reason for the boycott was their security concerns over the safety of their athletes.^[43] Specifically mentioned in their announcement was "the anti-Soviet campaign launched by reactionary circles in the United States with the connivance of the official authorities"; an allegation that "the U.S. authorities continue ... to interfere in affairs belonging exclusively to the competence of the LAOOC"; as well as an allegation that "extremist organizations and groupings of all sorts [are] openly aiming to create unbearable conditions for the stay of the Soviet delegation and for the performance by Soviet sportsmen" and that these extremist organizations "have sharply stepped up their activity with direct connivance of the American authorities". The boycott announcement stated that the IOC had purportedly investigated the Soviet allegations and found them to be "just and substantiated".^[44] In a meeting with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin on May 10, 1984, Secretary of State Shultz addressed each point brought up in the Soviet boycott announcement:

"They have alleged through TASS that at the April 24 Lausanne meeting, the IOC found the complaints of their Olympic Committee to be just and substantiated; that U.S. authorities continued to interfere in affairs within the exclusive competence of the Los Angeles Committee; and that U.S. authorities were conniving with extremist organizations which aim to create 'unbearable conditions' for their delegation and athletes. The facts, I said, are that the IOC did not make the finding TASS describes; that the U.S. Government has not interfered in LAOOC affairs (nor has the LAOOC ever claimed it has), but has worked with the LAOOC on issues within the sole competence of the U.S. Government at the committee's request; and that there has been no connivance with nor encouragement of these groups, that we have bent over backwards to meet all Soviet concerns, and have met them. I said I could run through a long list of facts about the tremendous effort we had made to meet Soviet concerns. For instance, we would have 17,000 people involved in Olympic security, and we were prepared to spend up to $50 million to assure it, including $500,000 for the Soviet ship alone. We had taken every imaginable step to ensure that Soviet athletes were safe and able to compete in the Olympics."^[45]

— Secretary of State Shultz, May 11, 1984

Where the Soviets' boycott announcement made reference to "extremist organizations and groupings of all sorts ... openly aiming to create unbearable conditions for the stay of the Soviet delegation and for the performance by Soviet sportsmen",^[44] among the main individuals being implicitly referred to was a group calling itself the Ban the Soviet Coalition. Formed by evangelical Christian writer David Balsiger^[46] — a self-described "maverick Republican"^[47] — and three other Southern California businessmen approximately one month after the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in September 1983, the Coalition had as its stated goal the removal of the Soviets from participating in the L.A. Games.^[48] The Coalition initially sought out President Reagan to support their aims, but when that failed, the Coalition turned to more provocative actions, including sending letters to Soviet Olympic officials threatening harm to their athletes.^{[49]: 50–51} Although relatively small in membership, the Coalition received outsized media attention at the time. The Soviets in turn, made a great deal of the group in their warnings that Los Angeles was a dangerous place.^[10]: 213

In April 1984, members of the Coalition began discussing erecting billboards along freeways that the Soviet athletes would travel during the Games as a means of encouraging defection, saying they hoped to establish 500 safe houses for any defectors. The LAOOC for its part was slow in speaking out against these plans, while the Reagan Administration avoided any direct criticism of their activities. Worse still in Soviet eyes, was deputy White House Chief of Staff Michael Deaver sending a friendly reply letter on January 10, 1984, thanking the Coalition for its earlier contact of the White House over concerns regarding proposed Soviet Olympic arrangements, such as docking the Soviet cruise ship MS Gruziya at Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor, actions which the Coalition felt would "introduce adverse security implications" for the United States. Since Deaver was recognized as the Administration's chief liaison to the Olympic committee, his reply letter was immediately used in the Soviet press as proof that the Soviet team ran the risk of being officially unwelcome in Los Angeles.^[10]: 214 Ueberroth tried privately to reassure the Soviets, who in turn began suggesting with increasing frequency that demonstrations against Soviet athletes be banned. The Soviets also suggested Balsiger be forcibly removed from Los Angeles to "a remote and quiet place", leaving Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Kenneth Dam to ask "What more do they want, other than to change Los Angeles into a miniature of the Soviet Union?"^[10]: 215 L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates said of the Coalition, "I respect that group's 1st Amendment right to do what they are doing, but I can tell you that the Russian athletes would never be aware of theirs or any other peaceful demonstrations", adding that "I can't believe that the Russians would be intimidated by a tiny group like the Ban the Soviets Coalition".^[49]: 51

After the Soviet announcement was made, a meeting of the IOC Executive Board was held on May 18–19 in Lausanne with officials from both the LAOOC and Soviet NOC. The purpose of this meeting was to identify specific examples of threats mentioned by the Soviets in their announcement, as well as to inquire from the Soviets in a last-ditch effort whether there were any possible conditions which might lead to participation. The Soviets in response gave no specific reasons other than the broad charges they had previously stated, and they refused to specify any conditions under which they would come to Los Angeles for the Games. The LAOOC surmised that this omission of specifics, coupled with the ideological make-up of the countries which joined the boycott, strongly suggested one conclusion:

"In view of the security guarantees made by the United States government, the disinterest or inability of the USSR NOC or other non-participating NOCs to identify specific conditions which made their participation impossible, was curious. Since the composition of the boycotting nations was limited to those already politically aligned with the Soviet Union, it was not surprising that many analysts concluded that the major motives behind the decision not to participate in Los Angeles included retribution for the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games held in Moscow and Soviet dissatisfaction with the policies of the United States government at the time."^[50]

— LAOOC

The majority of Western media agreed with the LAOOC's view of the boycott as being a retaliatory move by the Soviets in response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Games.^[51][52][53]

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, in an interview with the Madrid daily Diario 16, laid blame for the 1984 Soviet-led boycott squarely on one person: former American President Jimmy Carter. According to Samaranch, Carter was the single person who had done the most damage to the Olympic movement, saying "If the United States had gone to Moscow, it never would have occurred to the Soviets not to participate in Los Angeles."^[54]

The timeline of when the Soviets ostensibly began their push to boycott the Olympics suggests their decision‑making turning point was precipitated by a change in leadership. Leonid Brezhnev was General Secretary during the 1980 Moscow Olympics and thus was the leader most affected and publicly embarrassed by the American‑led boycott. Brezhnev died in November 1982, and was replaced by Yuri Andropov. During the 15 months of Andropov's leadership, both in the Soviet Union and in other communist countries, preparations by their individual Olympic committees continued to progress with all-apparent intention of attending the 1984 Games.^{[8]: 99–100 [55]} However, with Andropov's death in February 1984, the role of General Secretary was taken over by Konstantin Chernenko, who had been a close ally of Brezhnev's, and thus more amenable to feelings of antipathy towards the Americans for the 1980 boycott.^[56] After Chernenko's succession as leader, a vast change in the Soviet attitude towards the Games could be seen, suggesting that the Soviet decision to boycott was uncertain till at least three months before the Olympics began, and was influenced by the change in leadership from Andropov to Chernenko.^{[8]: 101 [49]: 56}

Among those subscribing to the change in leadership as a basis for the "revenge" hypothesis was Peter Ueberroth, who expressed his views in a press conference on May 11, 1984,^[57] where he stated that the Soviet Union "withdrew from the Olympics to give America a taste of its own medicine".^[58] Ueberroth later indicated that the Soviet-led boycott might have been avoided if organizers of the Summer Games had communicated with Konstantin Chernenko when he took over his country's leadership, saying "In retrospect, we can be criticized for not recognizing that change in leadership, from an Andropov to Chernenko", and that the organizing committee "should have tried to redouble our efforts to make certain there were no problems that could have opened the door to the Soviet-led boycott by 14 nations", adding that "we have tried in every possible way to not have 1980 happen again in 1984, but it did happen".^[59] Paul Ziffren, chairman of the board of the LAOOC, shared Ueberroth's view on the effect of Andropov's death, saying "when he died and Chernenko came to power, the whole thing changed. Chernenko was always Leonid Brezhnev's man. Brezhnev never forgave the United States for the '80 boycott. And the change in Russian attitude in my mind was a change between Andropov and Chernenko, and once Chernenko came in there, we started getting completely opposite signals."^[10]: 209

President Reagan for his part reached out immediately to the new Soviet leader upon Chernenko becoming General Secretary.^[14]: 88 On February 10 Reagan composed a letter to Chernenko where he stated that he had "no higher goal than the establishment of a relationship between our two great nations characterized by constructive cooperation".^[60] Based primarily on the statements Chernenko made to Vice President Bush at Andropov's funeral, and later, the response to Reagan from Chernenko on February 23, where Chernenko stated his desire for "a turn toward even and good relations between our two countries",^[61] Reagan was inspired on February 22, 1984, to task a team of advisors to consider inviting Chernenko to join Reagan as his guest at the Opening Ceremonies of the L.A. Games.^{[62][63]: 220–221} Despite receiving initial support from some circles of advisors in his Administration as well as from German Chancellor Kohl,^{[63]: 222, 223, 239} by April 1984, Reagan's advisors were arguing against sending such an invitation.^[64]

The Bethesda based Advanced International Studies Institute, associated with the University of Miami, said the Soviet impetus to boycott was probably initiated by Chernenko in April 1984. According to the Institute, that was when a concerted Soviet disinformation campaign began, designed to lay the groundwork for their boycott announcement, showing that American streets were "jungles" and that Soviet athletes and spectators would be "the prey of the beasts that the U.S. government allows to run loose in those streets".^[65] One example among many, according to the Institute, was the Soviet newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya, which in April 1984, began publishing seamier representations of the Games' host city:

"Los Angeles was nicknamed murder city long ago. ... The bloody statistics are mainly the work of juvenile gangs. ... These degenerate young people who smoke marijuana and hide a knife down their right trouser leg have two-thirds of all street crimes on their conscience. The outrageous crime rate, for which the city is known, would cast a bloody glow over the Olympic flame."^[65]

— Sovetskaya Rossiya, April 15, 1984

Two months after the boycott was announced, officials at the U.S. State Department linked the KGB to a series of hate leaflets purporting to be from the Ku Klux Klan which were sent to the Olympic organizing committees in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Malaysia and China, all countries which failed to join the Soviet boycott. State Department spokesman Alan Romberg said the leaflets "bear all the hallmarks of a disinformation campaign" and noted the thrust of the messages in the leaflets "dovetails neatly with the Soviet justification for their withdrawal" from the Summer Games. The threatening leaflets reportedly used stilted syntax, suggesting they were written by non-native speakers of English.^[66] By August, American Attorney General William French Smith was revealing that up to 20 nations had ultimately received the threatening letters, which Smith described as being "openly racist and disgusting" and that they "threaten violence against Asian and African nations who participate in the Games in Los Angeles".^[49]: 57 Smith went on to state that "fortunately none of the nations that received these letters succumbed to the attempted intimidation". Smith surmised the likely author of the letters, saying "they were not produced or sent by the Ku Klux Klan ... they were instead manufactured and mailed by another organization devoted to terror: the KGB."^[67]

On April 30, 1984, Sergei Kozlov, a visiting Soviet mathematician who had been in the United States for three months, had what was described as a "nervous breakdown" at Dulles International Airport just before he was scheduled to board a flight to London. Kozlov had told others that he was the victim of a gas attack and was possibly being followed by the KGB, and had changed his mind about returning to Europe. Kozlov eventually spoke with officials from the State Department, who mistook his complaints as a genuine request for asylum. A short time later, the New York University professor who helped sponsor Kozlov's visit to the United States provided State Department officials with more context, describing Kozlov's overall behavior during his stay as "very disturbing", along with other accounts of Kozlov's "ramblings about various things, including pressure from the KGB and his phone being bugged".^[68] After learning this additional context, the State Department released Kozlov, who eventually returned to the Soviet Union,^[69] but not before the incident garnered national attention as a possible defection, leading the Soviets to make public, diplomatic protests of the State Department's handling of the event.^[70][71]

A telegram from Warren Zimmermann at the American Embassy in Moscow sent to the State Department in Washington theorized that the incident at Dulles Airport had ramifications for the Soviet leadership, by hastening the date of their announcement of a decision which, since April, had been inexorably moving towards a boycott of the Games:

"The Kozlov incident coincided with the final stage of Moscow's consideration of whether or not to attend the Olympics—a decision which would have had to be made no earlier than June 2.^[a] The impact may well have been to demonstrate that even a carefully selected, mature individual with a family in the USSR [i.e., Kozlov] could not be relied upon not to become a media event. The potential for similar embarrassment of turning loose an entire team of young, world-class athletes amid the temptations of Los Angeles may thus have taken on an immediacy for Soviet policymakers it did not have before Kozlov's refusal to embark. In the context of the generally tough line on the U.S. currently prevailing in leadership circles here, it would have taken a strong, confident voice to have argued against a boycott. As we have seen too often of late, there is no evidence such a voice exists in the current leadership."^[74]

— Warren Zimmermann, May 9, 1984

According to Zimmermann, by the end of April 1984—before the Kozlov incident—"we had word from Soviet contacts in a position to know that training was continuing through last week, and that athletes were planning on being in Los Angeles", suggesting that despite lack of a strong voice in the leadership arguing for participation "as recently as a week ago, there was [still] strong internal support for participating in the Olympics, and that those favoring staying home had not yet carried the day." Zimmermann surmised that "as to timing, it seems to us most likely that those opposing participation ... wanted the decision announced quickly to cut off further internal lobbying on the issue", and that the Kozlov incident on April 30 offered the perfect pretense for finally making their decision public.^[74] The boycott announcement was duly made eight days later.^[15] Zimmermann said the eight‑day delay was intended to coincide with a major Soviet holiday, as "knowing how difficult the move would be to explain domestically, the leadership calculated that an announcement on the eve of Victory Day—when patriotic fervor could be counted upon to be at a yearly high—might quell any doubts."^[74]

A document obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements.^[75] Bryan Fogel, director of the film Icarus, said in a 2017 podcast that stricter doping controls might have been the main reason for the Soviet boycott.^[76]

When each of the Soviets' East European satellite countries announced their intention to join the boycott, they individually released press statements which largely mirrored that of the Soviets' stated reasons. As for what other incentive they may have had, a memorandum prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency suggests that at least some of those countries chose to follow along with an unpopular decision in order to foster "bloc loyalty" at a time when there were other, more-important issues warranting a break with the Soviets that they could undertake:

"Other East European states, although unhappy with the Soviet decision, probably view participation in the boycott as a useful way to demonstrate bloc loyalty on an issue of less direct significance to them at a time when they have been resisting Soviet initiatives in more important areas. They also realize that heeding the boycott does not seriously affect their vital interests vis‑à‑vis the West. The Hungarians, for example, told United States Embassy officials after the Soviets rejected Budapest's proposal to send a small team to the games that, in the end, this was not the issue on which to make a stand."^[77]

— CIA memorandum, June 26, 1984

U.S. officials had said before Hungary announced its decision that if Hungary chose to boycott, the United States would not retaliate by revoking Hungary's most favored nation trade status, a distinction which Hungary held in 1984. A senior State Department official said "the Hungarian decision to join the boycott is understood to be a case of following Kremlin marching orders and will not affect the administration's supporting Hungary's most-favored nation trade treatment."^[78]

That question of whether Hungary would join along in boycotting the Games had been voted upon by members of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. Pressure had been placed on committee members by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party as well as from the Soviet Union itself, which reportedly threatened closing Soviet gas pipelines to Hungary. That caused all but one member of the Hungarian Olympic Committee to vote for non-participation.^[79]: 172

After making their announcement public, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Central Committee established within the Party's agitation and propaganda section an Olympic Operative Workgroup tasked with monitoring and evaluating radio, television, and press broadcasts. In monitoring these outlets, the Party emphasized opinions confirming the boycott decision while concomitantly eliminating opinions criticizing it. The mood of Hungarian athletes was also monitored.^[79]: 173 The Workgroup ascertained that:

"...the opinions on MOB's (Hungarian Olympic Committee's) decision were diverse. Most of those people who were politically better prepared did understand the decision, many others–mostly intellectuals and the youth–accepted it with a feeling of frustration, and they disputed the justification. The opinion-makers blamed extremist groups in the USA for the situation, while sometimes mentioning the responsibility of the IOC. Most people feared for the future of the Olympic movement."^[79]: 173

According to the Hungarian sports newspaper Nepsport, Hungarian Olympic team members who were particularly recalcitrant in accepting the boycott—approximately 143 athletes—were eventually paid by the Hungarian government varying amounts of cash after unofficially threatening to quit when Hungary announced its boycott. Those athletes reportedly received awards ranging from $100 to $3,000.^[80]

Polish dependence on the Soviet Union also led to their being pressured to join the Soviets' boycott. As was done in Hungary, in Poland "the ruling political circles made a scapegoat of the institution" by having members of the Polish Olympic Committee take a public vote on the question. In that way, those actually behind the decision—the Polish United Workers' Party—were shielded from public opprobrium.^[81]

Fifteen communist and socialist-leaning countries (nine from Africa) did not join the Soviet-led boycott and instead, participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics.^[82]

•  Algeria (ALG)
•  Benin (BEN)
•  Burma (BIR)
•  China (CHN) was somewhat hostile towards the Soviet Union in 1984,^[83] while at the same time it began experiencing a more cordial relationship with the United States. President Reagan made a six‑day state visit to China three months before the start of the L.A. Games, where in Beijing he met with Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, and at the Forbidden City, where Reagan was warmly received by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.^{[63]: 234–237 [84]} During the 1980 pair of Winter and Summer Olympic Games, China had sent a team to Lake Placid while boycotting Moscow.^[83]
•  Republic of the Congo (CGO)
•  Guinea (GUI)
•  Madagascar (MAD)
•  Mali (MLI)
•  Mozambique (MOZ)
•  Nicaragua (NCA) sent a delegation to the L.A. Games to participate in boxing, weightlifting and exhibition baseball, despite that country being part of the Eastern Bloc ever since a leftist Sandinista government took power from former president Anastasio Somoza Debayle in July 1979.^[85]
•  Romania (ROM) was the sole European Eastern Bloc country to attend the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Romania's athletes received a standing ovation at the Opening Ceremonies upon making their Coliseum entrance. Romania ended up finishing third in overall medal count at the Games.^[86][87] Romania's leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, had a record of publicly demonstrating opposition to Soviet policies if those stances improved his favorability amongst Romanians.^[88][89] In a written correspondence with Ceaușescu following the Games' conclusion, President Reagan offered his personal thanks to Romania for their attendance, saying he "sincerely appreciated Romania's important contribution to the Los Angeles Olympics and the Olympic movement".^[90] In 1985, the IOC awarded Ceaușescu and the President of the Romanian National Olympic Committee, Haralambie Alexa, with Olympic Orders, Gold and Silver, respectively.^[91] LAOOC President Peter Ueberroth later disclosed that the LAOOC contributed $60,000 and the IOC another $60,000 towards defraying the $180,000 cost of bringing the Romanian team to Los Angeles.^[10]: 230
•  Seychelles (SEY)
•  Somalia (SOM) had been considered part of the Eastern Bloc since at least 1972.^[92] By 1978, its relations with the Soviet Union had strained after the Soviets supported Ethiopia in the Ethio-Somali War.^[93]
•  Syria (SYR)
•  Yugoslavia (YUG) was a non-aligned country that acted independently of the Soviet Union and shared friendly relations with both the Soviet Union and the United States.^[94] One of the reasons for the country not boycotting the Games may have been that it had just hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics.^[95]

The Soviets organized the Friendship Games, a full-scale multi-sport event, for boycotting countries.^[96] The Games were contested in 22 Olympic disciplines (all except association football and synchronized swimming), and in non-Olympic table tennis, tennis, and sambo wrestling. The Soviet Union dominated the medal table, winning 126 gold and 282 total medals. General Secretary Chernenko failed to appear at the closing ceremony of the Friendship Games, held in Moscow. Commentators took the absence as a sign of Chernenko's failing health.^[97]

In 2007, Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed into law a qualified sports bill affecting 57 Polish athletes who had received medals at the 1984 Friendship Games. With passage of this law, those 57 athletes then became eligible to receive pension benefits equivalent to those already received by Polish athletes who had won medals at past Olympic Games which Poland had attended. Prior to the law's passage, athletes who were selected to attend the 1984 Games in Los Angeles but were not able to owing to the Polish boycott—who then went on to win medals at the Friendship Games—were ineligible to receive pension benefits.^[98]

In 2014, the Czech Olympic Committee issued a formal apology to those athletes who were denied access to competition at the L.A. Games due to Czechoslovakia's decision to boycott, saying "Today we can, unclouded by feelings of bad will, assess what went on in our country during the second half of the 20th century, without emotion, but with fairness in mind", adding that "we must find the courage to say out loud what was right, what was wrong and what was downright deceitful".^[99]

• 1980 Summer Olympics boycott
• 1986 Asian Games
• List of Olympic Games boycotts