The objective of this program is stability for our ICBM forces in the nineties, a hedge against Soviet breakout of the ABM treaty, and the technical competence to evaluate Soviet ABM developments. We currently have no plan to deploy any ballistic missile defense system. That's a reduction by half, both in cost and in numbers of missiles deployed, from the other plans on the drawingboards when I entered office. Both of these programs are already reflected in the FY 83 budget projections, but the specific decisions announced today allow us to proceed with the reductions from my February budget request for this year of a billion dollars, which we have so carefully worked out with the Congress. Continuity of effort in national security affairs is essential.
Turbulence is wasteful beyond words.
These programs to increase the stability and security of our strategic nuclear forces are urgently needed. The planning by my predecessors made them possible, but it is for my successor that I make these decisions. With every effort, the Peacekeeper missile still will not be fully deployed until the late 1980's, when yet another President shoulders these burdens. It is only by such steadfastness of purpose that we can maintain the peace which every nation needs to work out the hopes and dreams of its own people.