Ronald Reagan: “The MX Peacekeeper will strengthen our national security and our negotiating position at Geneva.”

This is a great day.

I expressed to President Gorbachev my confidence that the work we began together at Geneva in 1985 will continue under the Bush administration.

I do hereby proclaim December 17, 1988, as Wright Brothers Day.

These unilateral reductions would, however, give a long-awaited encouragement for our efforts to achieve the genuine balance in conventional forces that would assure greater security and stability in Europe.