"The reality is that we must find peace through strength."

The initial work on the principles and goals of this strategy began in 1978. This was the year the original Coalition for Peace through Strength was formed, and a national strategy conference was held at the American Security Council's original headquarters in Boston, Virginia. After considerable debate, the participating Coalition members selected eight strategy principles they recommended for adoption as national policy.

This public diplomacy campaign and national strategy effort sparked a movement that had history-making consequences. This strategy effort involved 257 Members of Congress, 168 national organizations, and 514 colleges and universities. The resulting study became “A National Strategy for Peace Through Strength.”

The national strategy campaign was strictly non-partisan, and the results were embraced by prominent leaders for both political parties. The eight principles and goals for this strategy eventually became the cornerstone of the defense and foreign policy of the United States. They resulted in the successful conventional and strategic modernization program of the 1980s, and they also led to vigorous support for democratic resistance movements around the world.

These principles and goals were incorporated into a Peace Through Strength Resolution. In introducing this resolution in the U.S. Senate in 1983, Senator Paul Laxalt (R-NV) said:

“Soviet expansionism has been driven by a goal of domination and guided by a grand strategy to achieve that goal. Soviet successes have been possible only because the United States has had neither a goal nor a strategy in this conflict. U.S. policy has been essentially that of reacting to Soviet initiatives in defense of the status quo.”

President Reagan's national security policy was based on the principles of “Peace Through Strength.” These principles were adopted in both the 1980 and 1984 Platforms of the Republican Party.

The fundamental premise of the Peace Through Strength Strategy was based on the need for military, economic and diplomatic strength. The strategy introduced by the lawmakers was often controversial, and frankly it was not popular with the national news media. Among other elements, its principles called for using non-military means to stop and roll back the growth of communism. It advocated changing the national security structure in order for the United States to maintain a strong military so it could prevail in any conflict with the then Soviet Union.