Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XLIV, Part 1, National Security Policy, 1985–1988

168. Memorandum of Conversation¹

Washington, December 15, 1986

SUBJECT

• My meeting with the President on December 15, 1986 in the Oval Office

I met with the President in the Oval Office, with Al Keel present.

[Omitted here is material not related to National Security Policy.]

II. I urged that we view with great caution the latest Soviet “back channel” approach,² and particularly anything that limited our activity on strategic defense, such as adopting the restrictive interpretation of ICBM for five years. I pointed out that under a State Department suggestion we would not even get any promise from the Soviets that they would agree to SDI deployment in ten years.

III. I gave him a brief preview of the MX-Small Missile briefing we would do for him the next day, and reported to him the JCS view that the Small Missile made no sense militarily, or economically.

IV. The President asked if I would give him a list of things we could do with the six billion dollars presently allocated to the Small Missile if we abandoned the Small Missile program.

V. I spoke to him about the Supplemental Appropriations Bill, and urged that we include five or six million dollars in that Supplemental to make up for cuts Congress had made in the SDI program. He agreed.

VI. I urged that we oppose Senator Dole’s idea to bring the SALT II Treaty to a vote in the Senate, on the ground that the President’s decision on SALT II should be considered final and that no good could come from a Senate debate (and, in fact, we might lose).

[Omitted here is material not related to National Security Policy.]

1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Weinberger Papers, Appt. and Daily File, Box 10, Notes Set B, 1986, 3, #34–48. Secret. Drafted on December 19. The President’s Daily Diary indicates that Reagan met with Weinberger and Keel in the Oval Office on December 15 from 1:59 until 2:35 p.m. (Reagan Library, President’s Daily Diary) In a personal diary entry for that day, Reagan wrote: “Met with Cap W. on plan for having 50 MX missiles on railroad cars. He & I agree we’d like to cancel the ‘Midget’ missile Cong. forced on us as a requirement for getting the MX.” (Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries, vol. II: November 1985–January 1989, p. 668)
2. See Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. VI, Soviet Union, October 1986–January 1989, Document 9.