Diary Entry - 02/26/1986
Key Facts
President Reagan meets with the Board of Directors of the new U.S. Institute of Peace.
The President and First Lady are filmed by an ABC production crew to be included in the Barbara Walters television Special.
Pres. Marcos & his party departed Guam & are now at Hickam Field Hawaii. They will stay at the base possibly 72 hrs. then he will go to his home on Diamond Head.—Yes he has one there too. The delay at Hickam is because of the large Filipino pop.—there might be demonstrations. We’re going to provide S.S. protection for a limited time. So—no civil war and we’ve proceeded to recognize the new Philippine govt.
Had a group of Congressmen in for a pitch on aid to Nicaragua. Then met with Board of Dir’s. of Nat. Peace Institute. After lunch a meeting with Geo. S. We’re having some trouble with the lobby (Jewish Cong.) pro Israel about our A.W.A.C.s sale to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are the stabilizing force in the Persian Gulf & we’re determined to lend them mil. support such as sale of arms. The lobby opposes on the grounds of possible re-newal of the Arab-Israeli war. We’ve pledged to Israel we’ll never let them be outgunned.
Geo. is going to lean hard on the Lobby.
Some more filming for Barbara Walters special & then upstairs—Well there was one more Cong. briefing on Nicaragua, this time Sen’s. Dem. & Repub.
Then 8 P.M. my T.V. address from the Oval office—on Defense. We got more calls & wires than on any other speech on defense & the favorable ran 91.4%. ABC put a Soviet commentator on the air to reply to my speech.
