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

239. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Powell) to President Reagan¹

Washington, November 23, 1987

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ON SDI

I. PURPOSE

To visit an SDI facility (Martin Marietta) and to deliver an address on the SDI program. Your address also devotes particular attention to your efforts for offensive arms reductions.

II. BACKGROUND

Since this is your first visit to an SDI facility, your remarks will be particularly important to the men and women working on the program, at Martin Marietta and elsewhere across the country. Your remarks are intended for a wider audience as well, who will be extremely interested in hearing your reaffirmation of your commitment to SDI.

III. PARTICIPANTS

You will speak to the 2,000 employees of Martin Marietta’s Denver Aeronautics Facility, the contractor for SDI’s Zenith Star laser program. SDIO Director Abrahamson and Martin Marietta Chairman and CEO Tom Pownall will be on the podium with you. Your remarks will be preceded by a classified briefing on Zenith Star and other SDI programs, followed by a panel chaired by White House Science Adviser Bill Graham and including three prominent SDI proponents: Dr. Fred Seitz, President Emeritus of Rockefeller University and former President of the National Academy of Sciences; General (USAF, Ret.) Bernard Schriever, a member of your Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; and Dr. Solomon Buchsbaum, Executive Vice President of Bell Laboratories.

IV. PRESS PLAN

Open coverage, except for the classified briefing.

V. SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Classified briefing, 11:05; scientific panel, 11:50; Presidential remarks, 12:15; Gen. Abrahamson introduces Martin Marietta employee of the year, who will make a presentation to you, 12:30.

VI. REMARKS²

Provided by speechwriters.

1. Source: Reagan Library, Steven Steiner Files, Arms Control File, 51—AC/SDI (11/1/1987–11/30/1987). No classification marking. Printed from an uninitialed copy. The document indicates that the meeting was scheduled for November 24 from 11:05 a.m. until 12:35 p.m.in Denver, Colorado.
2. The text of Reagan’s November 24 address to Martin Marietta Denver Astronautics employees is in Public Papers: Reagan, 1987, Book II, pp. 1379–1382. In it, he described the Strategic Defense Initiative “a scientific advance that will be judged a success based not on how many lives it is capable of taking—which is none—but on how many it is able to protect.”