Office of the Historian

175. Memorandum From the President’s Acting Assistant for National Security Affairs (Keel) to President Reagan1

Washington, December 16, 1986

SECRETARY WEINBERGER’S BRIEFING ON SDI

I. PURPOSE

Secretary Weinberger wishes to present to you a relatively near term phased deployment plan on strategic defenses.

II. BACKGROUND

Secretary Weinberger now believes that in order to protect the SDI deployment options of future presidents, it is essential that you take certain key policy steps in that direction during your remaining two years in office. He will recommend that we begin to lay the groundwork now for phased deployments of increasingly effective strategic defenses, beginning with a deployment in 1993 of two layers: space-based kinetic kill vehicles designed to intercept Soviet ballistic missiles in their boost phase and a ground-based system which would intercept Soviet warheads in their late mid-course. The plan raises a number of difficult issues which need to be aired at the meeting, including: a) the [Page 592] military utility of these systems and the survivability of the space-based elements; b) the need for additional SDI funding, including an FY 87 supplemental; c) the necessity for an urgent enhancement of our space boost capability; and d) the need to move to the broader, legally correct, interpretation of the ABM Treaty within a year or two and to break out of the Treaty altogether when we begin deployments.

III. PARTICIPANTS

List at Tab A2

IV. PRESS PLAN

No press plan.

V. SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Secretary Weinberger will open with a policy presentation, SDIO Director Lt. Gen. Abrahamson will brief on the program changes which would be involved, and Assistant Secretary of Defense Perle will brief on the ABM Treaty implications and the plan’s relationship to your arms control objectives. Discussion will follow.

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Sven Kraemer Files, December 1986 Chron File. Secret; Sensitive. Copies were sent to Bush and Regan. A stamped notation at the top right-hand corner of the memorandum indicates Reagan saw it on December 17. Reagan wrote his initials in the top right-corner of the memorandum. The document notes that the briefing was scheduled for December 17 at 11 a.m. in the Situation Room.↩
  2. Attached but not printed is a list of participants, which included: Reagan, Bush, Weinberger, Keel, Cockell, Perle, Abrahamson, and Linhard.↩