 The President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. Get out of time. Oh, thank you very much. I'm sorry if I was delaying you long. There looked to be a stage wait here. I usually peek around the corner there and somebody's speaking, and then I kind of sneak down the hall so that I won't interrupt. And this time, I just saw you sitting here in an empty podium. So I hurried. But, looking at all of you, there are people that would suggest that the American Eagle is an endangered species. And there are other people right here in town that hope you are. I want to thank Mike Kerber for what he's contributed to increasing the number of you. And Senator Paul Lacks all who isn't with us here today, but our Chairman Frank Ferenkoff and their commitment to building the Republican Party. And I thank all of you. We need your help, but we also need your help in recruiting more Eagles. That's increased the flock. But you are very much needed. And I think you're aware of that. I came in here filled with so many things that I think ought to be talked about in the coming days ahead. Have you noticed how nobody's calling it Reaganomics anymore? It must be succeeding. It's all right with me. But there are a lot of other things that are on my mind very much. The whole matter of our national security, the matter of our dealing in arms reductions and so forth, and we're going to continue with that. It's the only path to follow. Peace must be our goal. Our greatest difficulty is making some of those people who habitually on the other side of the aisle up on Capitol Hill have always felt that the small change door drawer was the defense budget. And anytime you needed money for some of their exotic experiments, you take it away from defense and they're still in that frame of mind. But we're going to have difficulty succeeding in getting the Russians to meet us halfway on the idea of arms reduction. The only thing that brought them to the table in the first place was the knowledge that we were going ahead with rearmament. It was all summed up in a cartoon once while Brezhnev was still alive. It was Brezhnev talking to a Russian officer and he said, I like the arms race better when we were the only ones in it. And we're trying to change that. But I've just thought rather than me stand here and all of those things that are on my mind, you must have some things in your mind and I don't have an awful lot of time. But I'll bet that some of you at time or another have said, if I had a chance, I'd like to ask him. Ask me. Mr. President, I'm from Los Angeles after the capstone arrangement where the reserve forces go to wherever is necessary an event in the hostilities. At the present time, we don't have funds available to support that. I recently went to a capstone conference in New Orleans. There was no money to fund that. So you have to pay your own way as a reserve officer. Are we going to get something going towards the reserves? Yes you are and it's already begun, but again it's still part of the whole fight that we're having up there on the hill to get the things that we asked for. If I could just describe what happens in the defense budget. When we put the defense budget together, we don't deal in money. We deal in what do we need to meet the strategic plan that we have for the national security. What weapons systems? How many men? How much ammunition and fuel and so forth for training, for readiness, transportation and so forth. And then you add up, having put that together as what you basically need to do the job and find out how much it costs and you ask for that amount of money. But up on the hill, they don't even look at that. They just talk the money. Let's take X number of billions of dollars. Let's cut it by X percent. And no consideration. Not in any one of their minds is what we're doing is eliminating this wing of aircraft where we're reducing this much manpower or we're canceling out a division or 30 ships or something of that kind. No. Then the reduced budget comes back and then they have to sit down in the Pentagon and say, okay, what do we cancel? But the reserve was one of the weakest parts prior to our coming here of the whole defense strategy. And as you know, an active reserve is one of the most important things. It's you either have to maintain as the Russians do a gigantic military force or you have to have an active reserve that you know can instantly be called up and be ready. So there is increased funding and we are trying. I couldn't tell you, Cap or Harry, where it comes in the priority scale but I know there has been a great improvement in the defense buildup. Perhaps what money has been available might have gone to the National Guard before the active reserve. I don't know about that. Yes, ma'am. This is a common sense. Down to earth approach, we can cost a lot of money. You start there, but the American people are hostages to Soviet adventurers and until these changes are strategically of a low cost private sector working for public sector initiative in civil defense, I think it is very, very good for this company. I wonder if you can comment on that. I didn't know about that book, but I will look into that booklet. If you send it to him, I know he sent it to the Pentagon. But I'll try to find out where or what the decision was on that, but we have funding now for something in the line of civil defense. We didn't have. That was a part of the whole agreement, the mad policy, mutual assured destruction, except that the Soviet Union never observed that. They have a fantastic system of civil defense, including hardened shelters and factories underground and everything else. And for many years under our predecessors they paid no attention to that and did not let the American people know that that was going on in the Soviet Union. Well, yes? Well, our determination is that the good guys are the government and I think this is the proof. If any of you remember a little over a year ago and for quite some time before every day in the newspaper and every night on the evening news, you saw the El Salvador war and always it was portrayed from the standpoint of the Soviet Union. And I think from the standpoint of that the good guys were the guerrillas and that they were the people representing the people. And then they had that election. And 83% of the people turned out even though the guerrillas threatened to kill people that tried to vote. A congressional delegation, many of them hostile to our position, went down to observe. They came back and they came to my office and they talked about converted. They said that they had talked to a woman standing in the line who had stood there for hours waiting for a turn to vote. She had been wounded by the guerrillas, refused to leave the line for medical help until she had voted. A grandmother told them that the guerrillas had told her they'd kill her and her family. And she said to them, you can kill me, you can kill my family, you can kill our friends, you can't kill us all. They destroyed almost 400 buses and trucks the guerrillas did to keep the people from voting. It isn't easy like it is here. That's probably why 50% of us vote. Over they had to walk for hours out in the highways. They don't vote in their hometown. They come in to the city and all to vote. But 83% of them and when they'd finished they had proven that they were on the side of democracy and this government is the government elected by those people and now they're going to have another election and they're going to have it before this year is out although it was only scheduled for next year. And the plain truth of the matter is Cuba with Soviet backing and domination has established a foothold in Nicaragua. Cuba we know is their lackey and the arms that are coming in and the training to the guerrillas that's not a bunch of peasants with muskets up there. That is a highly trained military organization. And they are backed in the other day a spokesman for Nicaragua openly stated that yes they are beholden to the Soviet Union and to Cuba and those are their friends. And what we're trying to do with regard to Central American we've had, I think we've established quite a relationship with Honduras and with Costa Rica, Guatemala and the other countries down there is persuade them that this is regional that they're all next and the ultimate goal is that the United States will wind up with a 2000 mile border to our south and everything below that border will be like Cuba. And we feel that and we're trying to persuade the Congress and we're having trouble. Two thirds of our aid is economic one third is military and we're not getting involved in a Vietnam. We have trainers there trying to train their men. We trained a couple of their battalions up here but they now can't spare the manpower to send them away for that long. But we don't have military advisors and we're not getting engaged in that but we must win. Yes ma'am. Well now thank you I enjoyed it very much. And to those of you who only read about it and said that and heard that there were anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 people demonstrating against us the crowd was a thousand or less. That's when their hostiles they multiply in the press. Well this is what our goal the only solution to the Israel problem they're living as an armed camp they have over 100% inflation as a result. They're just Egypt that they once were at war with has made peace with them and what we're trying to create are more Egypt's. And it begins however with getting them all out of Lebanon so that Lebanon can re-zoom after eight years of bloodshed and inner strife can re-zoom sovereignty over its own land. And that's the first step and we're working with King Hussein for him to take the lead in the negotiations on the Arab side and what we envisage and we've made great progress with the more moderate Arab countries is to get the Arab countries begins with them and they're ready to recognize Israel's right to exist. We forget that most of the problem has been, has kept Israel on edge is that these other countries have said is to recognize that Israel has a right to exist as a nation. Now they're ready to say that and then negotiate and I think it's going to the negotiation is going to involve the trade of some territory because Israel still does occupy the land that they conquered in the other wars trade of territory for security and the security would be peace treaties and friendly neighbors instead of the armed camp that they've been. I know that I've run out of time and I think you'll understand why I have to keep the next engagement. There is an anniversary or not an anniversary there is a reunion that is being held down the hall here 31 ladies and it is the first reunion that has ever been held of this particular group they are 31 of the ladies who were captured in Corregidor and Batan in World War II all but two of them were nurses and for the first time they have been brought together and they're here in the White House and I'm going down to meet with them I think it's a reunion that should have been held every year for the last 38 years it was 38 years ago yesterday that they were freed by our forces and the next time I'm going to make the answers well yeah alright Mr. Handshade in our space to prove to the world that we mean business as the peace how about a shuttle salute Handshade it's something I don't think that anyone has thought of I'm not an astronaut or a space scientist but let me see what the possibility that would be I know that they are busy on the other side in creating a space station right now and let's see what might happen with that but we do mean it and we mean it very definitely and so far they have been very reluctant to negotiate they've met us halfway on my 0-0 proposal in the intermediate range weapons 0 for us and they'll have 162 well okay thank you all