Simi Valley, Calif. ? The Reagan administration was growing concerned about congressional criticism of the sluggish U.S. response to terrorism in 1985, according to a memo among thousands of presidential papers released Friday.

“I see real trouble brewing here,” Ed Fox said in a Nov. 8, 1985, memo to Alan M. Kranowitz, a fellow member of the White House office of legislative affairs and assistant to the president on House affairs.

Alex Moskowitz, an economics major at the University of Pennsylvania, reads through some of the 59,850 pages of documents released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The documents, released Friday, had been kept closed by law for 12 years because they contain confidential internal advice and deliberations among government officials.

The previous month, Palestinian terrorists had hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, shot U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer in his wheelchair and threw his body into the Mediterranean. Four of the hijackers were later captured when U.S. warplanes intercepted an airline flight they were aboard and forced it to land in Sicily.

“If the PLO nuts or anyone else retaliates for our intercept of their buddies from Egypt, the President will be the target of attack by a bipartisan Congress,” the 1985 memo said. “They will ask why the Administration did not move to protect our sons and daughters abroad who are risking their lives in the service of our country.”

The memo apparently involved strengthening U.S. embassies and facilities abroad, giving insight into the responses to terrorism many years before it reached American soil.

The 59,850 pages of documents had been kept closed by law for 12 years because they contain confidential internal advice and deliberations among government officials.

The papers range from cabinet meeting minutes to memos on policies for issues such as air pollution and civil rights. They follow the release earlier this year of some 8,000 pages.

The documents released Friday often lack full references or context, and have yet to be assessed by researchers for their importance in the history of the Reagan White House or relevance to subsequent administrations.

Just a few people were on hand when the papers were made available Friday in the research section of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“For the first time we are releasing confidential advice,” said Duke Blackwood, the library director. “I think it gives the public another inside look at how decision-making in the administration worked. And that is very important.”

Still sealed are 150 pages of Reagan papers and tens of thousands of pages left behind by former Vice President George Bush. Those documents are under review by the White House or have not been scheduled for release.