William Flynn Martin - Reagan Administration

Reagan Administration

In 1981, Martin joined the United States Department of State as Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State James L. Buckley who recalled Martin's activities in his book Gleanings from an Unplanned Life . The senior Reagan administration inter-agency "Buckley Group" that Martin coordinated sought to reduce European subsidies and credits to the Soviet Union. It also urged Europeans to reduce their dependence on Soviet gas and to find alternatives. Finally, it proposed market oriented energy policies for the United States (deregulation of oil and gas price controls, permitting Alaskan oil exports, allowing eminent domain for coal slurry pipelines) -- all policies of which eventually came to fruition during the Reagan Presidency. (see reference to this again in James Buckley's Gleanings from an Unplanned Life ). Martin briefed President Reagan in the Oval Office that unless the US was credible in its energy policies, the Europeans would not take seriously our concerns on their over dependence on Soviet gas imports.

In 1982, he was transferred to the National Security Council as the Director of International Economic Affairs. In this capacity he prepared recommendations for the President in the areas of energy security, East-West economic relations, the Iran-Iraq War and Central American economic development. A key responsibility of Martin's was to conceptualize and then negotiate with the Europeans on the issue of reducing their reliance on Soviet natural gas imports, a project that was directed personally by President Reagan. Martin's role was to negotiate the development of the giant Norwegian Troll gas field to be an alternative to Soviet gas imports and this was documented in the book Troll: Gas for Generations, an excerpt of which can be seen here . This was part of a larger program to undermine the Soviet economy as reported by Peter Schweizer in his book, Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union and the excerpt where he credited Martin for this effort can be seen here .

Martin is also credited in a Presidential citation as the principal draftsman of the Williamsburg Declaration, which is a three page communique agreed to by the G-7 leaders who were Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the UK, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of Japan, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani of Italy and Prime Minister François Mitterrand of France. The President read the three page declaration before the world press and credited Martin as the principal draftsman in the following letter . Many conclude that this jointly agreed document, which argued for free markets and free trade policies, set in place the foundations for a worldwide economic recovery beginning in 1983. Based on these achievements, Martin was appointed Special Assistant to President Reagan, responsible for the coordination of the President’s international and head of state meetings.

Martin helped arrange President Reagan's international meetings coordinating with the White House Advance Office, NSC staff and the Department of State. He participated in the President's visits to Japan (1983), South Korea (1983), China (1984), Ireland (1984), United Kingdom (1984), the D-day fortieth anniversary commemoration on Normandy beaches in France (1984), Canada (1985), Spain (1985), Germany (1985), EU Parliament (1985), the Reagan-Gorbachev Geneva Summit (1985) and several G-7 economic summit meetings (Williamsburg, London and Bonn). Working closely with the State Department and NSC staff, he also coordinated the preparation of President Reagan's Oval Office head of state meetings. As NSC Senior Director for Coordination, he coordinated and participated in the President's major bilateral meetings with, among others, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of Japan, Shimon Peres of Israel, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada, President Ali Saibou of Niger, King Hussein of Jordan, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the UK, Prime Minister Bettino Craxi of Italy, Prime Minister Kåre Willoch of Norway, Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanond of Thailand, Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko of the USSR, OECD Secretary General Jean-Claude Paye, UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany.

In addition to general preparations for the President’s meeting with the Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, he and Dr. Alvin Trivelpiece were responsible for concluding an agreement with his Russian counterpart Academic Evgeny Velikhov on magnetic fusion cooperation that has since become the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project as recognized in the concluding sentence of the communique of this historic meeting, "The two leaders emphasized the potential importance of the work aimed at utilizing controlled thermonuclear fusion for peaceful purposes and, in this connection, advocated the widest practicable development of international cooperation in obtaining this source of energy, which is essentially inexhaustible, for the benefit for all mankind" . A letter from Martin to Dr. Trivelpiece recounting this experience can be seen here .

In preparation the for major visits abroad and in the Oval office, as well visits outside the United States, Martin would sometimes do the first draft of the President's weekly radio address in close coordination with Presidential chief speech writer Ben Elliott. Three of these addresses were especially important. First, Reagan's radio address in 1984 following his first meeting with a Soviet leader (Foreign Minister Gromyko) after four years in office . This widely quote radio address, highlighted in headlines on the front page of the Washington Post set the agenda and tone for the subsequent meeting with Soviet leader Gorbachev one year later. Reagan recognized Martin's role in its drafting in the following letter . Second, Martin prepared a radio address describing the G-7 Economic Meeting chaired by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 . And third, he prepared a radio address in 1983 describing the President's visit to Japan and Korea . In appreciation for Martin’s work on numerous projects, President Reagan commended him in a series of letters on: European gas supplies ; the 1983 Williamsburg Summit ; the 1984 UN General Assembly ; the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev Geneva Summit ; Reagan’s 1983 trip to Asia ; Reagan’s 1984 trip to China ; and Martin’s tenure as the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council .