President Reagan Proposes a Missile Defense System

Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security
March 23, 1983

My fellow Americans, thank you for sharing your time with me tonight.

The subject I want to discuss with you, peace and national security, is both timely and
important. Timely, because I've reached a decision which offers a new hope for our
children in the 21st century, a decision I'll tell you about in a few minutes. And important
because there's a very big decision that you must make for yourselves. This subject
involves the most basic duty that any President and any people share, the duty to protect
and strengthen the peace.

At the beginning of this year, I submitted to the Congress a defense budget which reflects
my best judgment of the best understanding of the experts and specialists who advise me
about what we and our allies must do to protect our people in the years ahead. That
budget is much more than a long list of numbers, for behind all the numbers lies
America's ability to prevent the greatest of human tragedies and preserve our free way of
life in a sometimes dangerous world. It is part of a careful, long-term plan to make
America strong again after too many years of neglect and mistakes.

Our efforts to rebuild America's defenses and strengthen the peace began 2 years ago
when we requested a major increase in the defense program. Since then, the amount of
those increases we first proposed has been reduced by half, through improvements in
management and procurement and other savings.

The budget request that is now before the Congress has been trimmed to the limits of
safety. Further deep cuts cannot be made without seriously endangering the security of
the Nation. The choice is up to the men and women you've elected to the Congress, and
that means the choice is up to you.

Tonight, I want to explain to you what this defense debate is all about and why I'm
convinced that the budget now before the Congress is necessary, responsible, and
deserving of your support. And I want to offer hope for the future.

But first, let me say what the defense debate is not about. It is not about spending
arithmetic. I know that in the last few weeks you've been bombarded with numbers and
percentages. Some say we need only a 5-percent increase in defense spending. The socalled alternate budget backed by liberals in the House of Representatives would lower
the figure to 2 to 3 percent, cutting our defense spending by $163 billion over the next 5
years. The trouble with all these numbers is that they tell us little about the kind of
defense program America needs or the benefits and security and freedom that our defense
effort buys for us.

What seems to have been lost in all this debate is the simple truth of how a defense
budget is arrived at. It isn't done by deciding to spend a certain number of dollars. Those
loud voices that are occasionally heard charging that the Government is trying to solve a
security problem by throwing money at it are nothing more than noise based on
ignorance. We start by considering what must be done to maintain peace and review all
the possible threats against our security. Then a strategy for strengthening peace and
defending against those threats must be agreed upon. And, finally, our defense
establishment must be evaluated to see what is necessary to protect against any or all of
the potential threats. The cost of achieving these ends is totaled up, and the result is the
budget for national defense.

There is no logical way that you can say, let's spend x billion dollars less. You can only
say, which part of our defense measures do we believe we can do without and still have
security against all contingencies? Anyone in the Congress who advocates a percentage
or a specific dollar cut in defense spending should be made to say what part of our
defenses he would eliminate, and he should be candid enough to acknowledge that his
cuts mean cutting our commitments to allies or inviting greater risk or both.

The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States
does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to
deter and defend against aggression -- to preserve freedom and peace.

Since the dawn of the atomic age, we've sought to reduce the risk of war by maintaining a
strong deterrent and by seeking genuine arms control. ``Deterrence'' means simply this:
making sure any adversary who thinks about attacking the United States, or our allies, or
our vital interests, concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he
understands that, he won't attack. We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness
only invites aggression.

This strategy of deterrence has not changed. It still works. But what it takes to maintain
deterrence has changed. It took one kind of military force to deter an attack when we had
far more nuclear weapons than any other power; it takes another kind now that the
Soviets, for example, have enough accurate and powerful nuclear weapons to destroy
virtually all of our missiles on the ground. Now, this is not to say that the Soviet Union is
planning to make war on us. Nor do I believe a war is inevitable -- quite the contrary. But
what must be recognized is that our security is based on being prepared to meet all
threats.

There was a time when we depended on coastal forts and artillery batteries, because, with
the weaponry of that day, any attack would have had to come by sea. Well, this is a
different world, and our defenses must be based on recognition and awareness of the
weaponry possessed by other nations in the nuclear age.

We can't afford to believe that we will never be threatened. There have been two world
wars in my lifetime. We didn't start them and, indeed, did everything we could to avoid
being drawn into them. But we were ill-prepared for both. Had we been better prepared,
peace might have been preserved.

For 20 years the Soviet Union has been accumulating enormous military might. They
didn't stop when their forces exceeded all requirements of a legitimate defensive
capability. And they haven't stopped now. During the past decade and a half, the Soviets
have built up a massive arsenal of new strategic nuclear weapons -- weapons that can
strike directly at the United States.

As an example, the United States introduced its last new intercontinental ballistic missile,
the Minute Man III, in 1969, and we're now dismantling our even older Titan missiles.
But what has the Soviet Union done in these intervening years? Well, since 1969 the
Soviet Union has built five new classes of ICBM's, and upgraded these eight times. As a
result, their missiles are much more powerful and accurate than they were several years
ago, and they continue to develop more, while ours are increasingly obsolete.

The same thing has happened in other areas. Over the same period, the Soviet Union built
4 new classes of submarine-launched ballistic missiles and over 60 new missile
submarines. We built 2 new types of submarine missiles and actually withdrew 10
submarines from strategic missions. The Soviet Union built over 200 new Backfire
bombers, and their brand new Blackjack bomber is now under development. We haven't
built a new long-range bomber since our B - 52's were deployed about a quarter of a
century ago, and we've already retired several hundred of those because of old age.
Indeed, despite what many people think, our strategic forces only cost about 15 percent of
the defense budget.

Another example of what's happened: In 1978 the Soviets had 600 intermediate-range
nuclear missiles based on land and were beginning to add the SS - 20 -- a new, highly
accurate, mobile missile with 3 warheads. We had none. Since then the Soviets have
strengthened their lead. By the end of 1979, when Soviet leader Brezhnev declared ``a
balance now exists,'' the Soviets had over 800 warheads. We still had none. A year ago
this month, Mr. Brezhnev pledged a moratorium, or freeze, on SS - 20 deployment. But
by last August, their 800 warheads had become more than 1,200. We still had none.
Some freeze. At this time Soviet Defense Minister Ustinov announced ``approximate
parity of forces continues to exist.'' But the Soviets are still adding an average of 3 new
warheads a week, and now have 1,300. These warheads can reach their targets in a matter
of a few minutes. We still have none. So far, it seems that the Soviet definition of parity
is a box score of 1,300 to nothing, in their favor.

So, together with our NATO allies, we decided in 1979 to deploy new weapons,
beginning this year, as a deterrent to their SS - 20's and as an incentive to the Soviet
Union to meet us in serious arms control negotiations. We will begin that deployment late
this year. At the same time, however, we're willing to cancel our program if the Soviets
will dismantle theirs. This is what we've called a zero-zero plan. The Soviets are now at
the negotiating table -- and I think it's fair to say that without our planned deployments,
they wouldn't be there.

Now, let's consider conventional forces. Since 1974 the United States has produced 3,050
tactical combat aircraft. By contrast, the Soviet Union has produced twice as many. When
we look at attack submarines, the United States has produced 27 while the Soviet Union
has produced 61. For armored vehicles, including tanks, we have produced 11,200. The
Soviet Union has produced 54,000 -- nearly 5 to 1 in their favor. Finally, with artillery,
we've produced 950 artillery and rocket launchers while the Soviets have produced more
than 13,000 -- a staggering 14-to-1 ratio.

There was a time when we were able to offset superior Soviet numbers with higher
quality, but today they are building weapons as sophisticated and modern as our own.

As the Soviets have increased their military power, they've been emboldened to extend
that power. They're spreading their military influence in ways that can directly challenge
our vital interests and those of our allies.

The following aerial photographs, most of them secret until now, illustrate this point in a
crucial area very close to home: Central America and the Caribbean Basin. They're not
dramatic photographs. But I think they help give you a better understanding of what I'm
talking about.

This Soviet intelligence collection facility, less than a hundred miles from our coast, is
the largest of its kind in the world. The acres and acres of antennae fields and intelligence
monitors are targeted on key U.S. military installations and sensitive activities. The
installation in Lourdes, Cuba, is manned by 1,500 Soviet technicians. And the satellite
ground station allows instant communications with Moscow. This 28-square-mile facility
has grown by more than 60 percent in size and capability during the past decade.

In western Cuba, we see this military airfield and it complement of modern, Soviet-built
Mig-23 aircraft. The Soviet Union uses this Cuban airfield for its own long-range
reconnaissance missions. And earlier this month, two modern Soviet antisubmarine
warfare aircraft began operating from it. During the past 2 years, the level of Soviet arms
exports to Cuba can only be compared to the levels reached during the Cuban missile
crisis 20 years ago.

This third photo, which is the only one in this series that has been previously made
public, shows Soviet military hardware that has made its way to Central America. This
airfield with its MI - 8 helicopters, anti-aircraft guns, and protected fighter sites is one of
a number of military facilities in Nicaragua which has received Soviet equipment
funneled through Cuba, and reflects the massive military buildup going on in that
country.

On the small island of Grenada, at the southern end of the Caribbean chain, the Cubans,
with Soviet financing and backing, are in the process of building an airfield with a
10,000-foot runway. Grenada doesn't even have an air force. Who is it intended for? The
Caribbean is a very important passageway for our international commerce and military
lines of communication. More than half of all American oil imports now pass through the
Caribbean. The rapid buildup of Grenada's military potential is unrelated to any
conceivable threat to this island country of under 110,000 people and totally at odds with
the pattern of other eastern Caribbean States, most of which are unarmed.

The Soviet-Cuban militarization of Grenada, in short, can only be seen as power
projection into the region. And it is in this important economic and strategic area that
we're trying to help the Governments of El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and others in
their struggles for democracy against guerrillas supported through Cuba and Nicaragua.

These pictures only tell a small part of the story. I wish I could show you more without
compromising our most sensitive intelligence sources and methods. But the Soviet Union
is also supporting Cuban military forces in Angola and Ethiopia. They have bases in
Ethiopia and South Yemen, near the Persian Gulf oil fields. They've taken over the port
that we built at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. And now for the first time in history, the
Soviet Navy is a force to be reckoned with in the South Pacific.

Some people may still ask: Would the Soviets ever use their formidable military power?
Well, again, can we afford to believe they won't? There is Afghanistan. And in Poland,
the Soviets denied the will of the people and in so doing demonstrated to the world how
their military power could also be used to intimidate.

The final fact is that the Soviet Union is acquiring what can only be considered an
offensive military force. They have continued to build far more intercontinental ballistic
missiles than they could possibly need simply to deter an attack. Their conventional
forces are trained and equipped not so much to defend against an attack as they are to
permit sudden, surprise offensives of their own.

Our NATO allies have assumed a great defense burden, including the military draft in
most countries. We're working with them and our other friends around the world to do
more. Our defensive strategy means we need military forces that can move very quickly,
forces that are trained and ready to respond to any emergency.

Every item in our defense program -- our ships, our tanks, our planes, our funds for
training and spare parts -- is intended for one all-important purpose: to keep the peace.
Unfortunately, a decade of neglecting our military forces had called into question our
ability to do that.

When I took office in January 1981, I was appalled by what I found: American planes
that couldn't fly and American ships that couldn't sail for lack of spare parts and trained
personnel and insufficient fuel and ammunition for essential training. The inevitable
result of all this was poor morale in our Armed Forces, difficulty in recruiting the
brightest young Americans to wear the uniform, and difficulty in convincing our most
experienced military personnel to stay on.

There was a real question then about how well we could meet a crisis. And it was obvious
that we had to begin a major modernization program to ensure we could deter aggression
and preserve the peace in the years ahead.

We had to move immediately to improve the basic readiness and staying power of our
conventional forces, so they could meet -- and therefore help deter -- a crisis. We had to
make up for lost years of investment by moving forward with a long-term plan to prepare
our forces to counter the military capabilities our adversaries were developing for the
future.

I know that all of you want peace, and so do I. I know too that many of you seriously
believe that a nuclear freeze would further the cause of peace. But a freeze now would
make us less, not more, secure and would raise, not reduce, the risks of war. It would be
largely unverifiable and would seriously undercut our negotiations on arms reduction. It
would reward the Soviets for their massive military buildup while preventing us from
modernizing our aging and increasingly vulnerable forces. With their present margin of
superiority, why should they agree to arms reductions knowing that we were prohibited
from catching up?

Believe me, it wasn't pleasant for someone who had come to Washington determined to
reduce government spending, but we had to move forward with the task of repairing our
defenses or we would lose our ability to deter conflict now and in the future. We had to
demonstrate to any adversary that aggression could not succeed, and that the only real
solution was substantial, equitable, and effectively verifiable arms reduction -- the kind
we're working for right now in Geneva.

Thanks to your strong support, and bipartisan support from the Congress, we began to
turn things around. Already, we're seeing some very encouraging results. Quality
recruitment and retention are up dramatically -- more high school graduates are choosing
military careers, and more experienced career personnel are choosing to stay. Our men
and women in uniform at last are getting the tools and training they need to do their jobs.

Ask around today, especially among our young people, and I think you will find a whole
new attitude toward serving their country. This reflects more than just better pay,
equipment, and leadership. You the American people have sent a signal to these young
people that it is once again an honor to wear the uniform. That's not something you
measure in a budget, but it's a very real part of our nation's strength.

It'll take us longer to build the kind of equipment we need to keep peace in the future, but
we've made a good start.

We haven't built a new long-range bomber for 21 years. Now we're building the B - 1.
We hadn't launched one new strategic submarine for 17 years. Now we're building one
Trident submarine a year. Our land-based missiles are increasingly threatened by the
many huge, new Soviet ICBM's. We're determining how to solve that problem. At the
same time, we're working in the START and INF negotiations with the goal of achieving
deep reductions in the strategic and intermediate nuclear arsenals of both sides.

We have also begun the long-needed modernization of our conventional forces. The
Army is getting its first new tank in 20 years. The Air Force is modernizing. We're
rebuilding our Navy, which shrank from about a thousand ships in the late 1960's to 453
during the 1970's. Our nation needs a superior navy to support our military forces and
vital interests overseas. We're now on the road to achieving a 600-ship navy and
increasing the amphibious capabilities of our marines, who are now serving the cause of
peace in Lebanon. And we're building a real capability to assist our friends in the vitally
important Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf region.

This adds up to a major effort, and it isn't cheap. It comes at a time when there are many
other pressures on our budget and when the American people have already had to make
major sacrifices during the recession. But we must not be misled by those who would
make defense once again the scapegoat of the Federal budget.

The fact is that in the past few decades we have seen a dramatic shift in how we spend
the taxpayer's dollar. Back in 1955, payments to individuals took up only about 20
percent of the Federal budget. For nearly three decades, these payments steadily
increased and, this year, will account for 49 percent of the budget. By contrast, in 1955
defense took up more than half of the Federal budget. By 1980 this spending had fallen to
a low of 23 percent. Even with the increase that I am requesting this year, defense will
still amount to only 28 percent of the budget.

The calls for cutting back the defense budget come in nice, simple arithmetic. They're the
same kind of talk that led the democracies to neglect their defenses in the 1930's and
invited the tragedy of World War II. We must not let that grim chapter of history repeat
itself through apathy or neglect.

This is why I'm speaking to you tonight -- to urge you to tell your Senators and
Congressmen that you know we must continue to restore our military strength. If we stop
in midstream, we will send a signal of decline, of lessened will, to friends and adversaries
alike. Free people must voluntarily, through open debate and democratic means, meet the
challenge that totalitarians pose by compulsion. It's up to us, in our time, to choose and
choose wisely between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom and
the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of
freedom grow stronger day by day.

The solution is well within our grasp. But to reach it, there is simply no alternative but to
continue this year, in this budget, to provide the resources we need to preserve the peace
and guarantee our freedom.

Now, thus far tonight I've shared with you my thoughts on the problems of national
security we must face together. My predecessors in the Oval Office have appeared before
you on other occasions to describe the threat posed by Soviet power and have proposed
steps to address that threat. But since the advent of nuclear weapons, those steps have
been increasingly directed toward deterrence of aggression through the promise of
retaliation.

This approach to stability through offensive threat has worked. We and our allies have
succeeded in preventing nuclear war for more than three decades. In recent months,
however, my advisers, including in particular the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have underscored
the necessity to break out of a future that relies solely on offensive retaliation for our
security.

Over the course of these discussions, I've become more and more deeply convinced that
the human spirit must be capable of rising above dealing with other nations and human
beings by threatening their existence. Feeling this way, I believe we must thoroughly
examine every opportunity for reducing tensions and for introducing greater stability into
the strategic calculus on both sides.

One of the most important contributions we can make is, of course, to lower the level of
all arms, and particularly nuclear arms. We're engaged right now in several negotiations
with the Soviet Union to bring about a mutual reduction of weapons. I will report to you a
week from tomorrow my thoughts on that score. But let me just say, I'm totally
committed to this course.

If the Soviet Union will join with us in our effort to achieve major arms reduction, we
will have succeeded in stabilizing the nuclear balance. Nevertheless, it will still be
necessary to rely on the specter of retaliation, on mutual threat. And that's a sad
commentary on the human condition. Wouldn't it be better to save lives than to avenge
them? Are we not capable of demonstrating our peaceful intentions by applying all our
abilities and our ingenuity to achieving a truly lasting stability? I think we are. Indeed, we
must.

After careful consultation with my advisers, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I believe
there is a way. Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope. It is that
we embark on a program to counter the awesome Soviet missile threat with measures that
are defensive. Let us turn to the very strengths in technology that spawned our great
industrial base and that have given us the quality of life we enjoy today.

What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest
upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept
and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our
allies?

I know this is a formidable, technical task, one that may not be accomplished before the
end of this century. Yet, current technology has attained a level of sophistication where
it's reasonable for us to begin this effort. It will take years, probably decades of effort on
many fronts. There will be failures and setbacks, just as there will be successes and
breakthroughs. And as we proceed, we must remain constant in preserving the nuclear
deterrent and maintaining a solid capability for flexible response. But isn't it worth every
investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear war? We know it is.

In the meantime, we will continue to pursue real reductions in nuclear arms, negotiating
from a position of strength that can be ensured only by modernizing our strategic forces.
At the same time, we must take steps to reduce the risk of a conventional military conflict
escalating to nuclear war by improving our nonnuclear capabilities.

America does possess -- now -- the technologies to attain very significant improvements
in the effectiveness of our conventional, nonnuclear forces. Proceeding boldly with these
new technologies, we can significantly reduce any incentive that the Soviet Union may
have to threaten attack against the United States or its allies.

As we pursue our goal of defensive technologies, we recognize that our allies rely upon
our strategic offensive power to deter attacks against them. Their vital interests and ours
are inextricably linked. Their safety and ours are one. And no change in technology can
or will alter that reality. We must and shall continue to honor our commitments.

I clearly recognize that defensive systems have limitations and raise certain problems and
ambiguities. If paired with offensive systems, they can be viewed as fostering an
aggressive policy, and no one wants that. But with these considerations firmly in mind, I
call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to
turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the
means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Tonight, consistent with our obligations of the ABM treaty and recognizing the need for
closer consultation with our allies, I'm taking an important first step. I am directing a
comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development
program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic
nuclear missiles. This could pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the
weapons themselves. We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our
only purpose -- one all people share -- is to search for ways to reduce the danger of
nuclear war.

My fellow Americans, tonight we're launching an effort which holds the promise of
changing the course of human history. There will be risks, and results take time. But I
believe we can do it. As we cross this threshold, I ask for your prayers and your support.

Thank you, good night, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:02 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House. The
address was broadcast live on nationwide radio and television.

Following his remarks, the President met in the White House with a number of
administration officials, including members of the Cabinet, the White House staff, and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former officials of past administrations, to discuss the address.

Ronald Reagan, "Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security," speech, The White House, Washington, D.C., March 23, 1983, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Public Papers, Reagan Library (accessed April 3, 2008).