Selected Speech Drafts

This page, a work in progress, will eventually contain speech drafts of the major presidential speeches of the Ronald Reagan presidency. If you have a request for a specific speech draft please email me at thereaganfiles@gmail.com and I will see if I can find something at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to add to this page. Even better, if you have any drafts that you would like to contribute please send them my way so I can add them to this page!

To search for specific speeches by topic or date I recommend using either The American Presidency Project (for all presidential public speeches) or the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which has a searchable webpage of all speeches by Ronald Reagan during his presidency, organized by month.

Additionally, the Ronald Reagan Library has recently compiled a list of President Reagan’s major speeches. That link can be accessed by clicking here: List of Major Speeches by President Reagan.

Nov. 13, 1979: “Rendez-Vous With Destiny.”

March, 8, 1983: Address to the National Association of Evangelicals. (“Evil Empire” speech.)

Speech draft dated March 5, 1983

March, 23, 1983: Address to the Nation on National Security (“Strategic Defense Initiative” speech.)

Remarks at 6:15 PM to those invited to the White House to hear the President’s Speech

Speech draft dated March 19, 1983

Speech draft dated March 22, 1983 9AM with President Reagan’s own edits

Speech draft dated March 22, 1983, 4 PM incorporating President Reagan’s edits

Speech draft dated March 5, 1983

January 16, 1984: Address on U.S.-Soviet Relations (“Ivan and Ivanya” speech)

Speech draft dated Jan. 6, 1984 (with Reagan edits)

Memo from Tony Dolan recommending that altough the message of the speech will seem conciliatory, that the administration not put anything in a pre-speech publicity package making it seem like the President is backing down from his previous position that the Soviet Union is an “evil empire."