A Letter From The Publisher: Feb. 20, 1984

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The world's news events piled atop each other with bewildering rapidity last week. Their character was remarkably varied: ominous, reassuring, inspirational, showy, frustrating. The death of the leader of the Soviet Union was announced, with all its implications for the future of that socialist superpower and its troubled relationship with the U.S. In the face of more violence and political uncertainty in Lebanon, President Reagan acted to redeploy the Marines. For the first time, men floated freely in the heavens, breaking away from the shuttle Challenger to become human satellites. In Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, the XIV Winter Olympics opened with impressive pageantry, only to have events "whited out" by too much of a good thing: snow. In sum, it was a remarkable week for journalism and for TIME.

It began on Monday with a meaningful moment for the magazine, as President Ronald Reagan celebrated his 73rd birthday and the 129th anniversary of the founding of Eureka College, his alma mater, by giving an address at the Illinois campus. His subject: the need for a historical perspective in evaluating the changes that have transformed America over the past five decades. In the process, the President was inaugurating TIME'S Distinguished Speakers Program, a series of lectures presented in connection with the magazine's 60th anniversary. The talks will be given by outstanding men and women of various disciplines and claims to fame who have appeared on TIME'S cover.

In introducing the President at Eureka, Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Henry Grunwald recalled the familiar debate in the academic world between those who believe history is made by individuals and those who think it is the result of abstract, faceless forces. Said Grunwald: "We at TIME have always sided with the former school. In that spirit, TIME started out by putting a person on its cover every week, and the mainstay of that cover is still people." Grunwald called the Distinguished Speakers Program a "logical extension" of this tenet, one that would put TIME cover subjects "in direct touch with the public whose lives they have affected, and especially in touch with young people." The addresses will be given twice a year at colleges or universities picked by the speakers, who will be drawn from the worlds of politics, government, science, religion and the arts. They will represent a wide range of political and philosophic views and, it is hoped, will provoke lively discussion and debate between the newsmakers and their student audiences.

President Reagan, who has been on 24 TIME covers, caught the spirit of the program and the challenge the speakers could offer their audiences when he said: "I hope that 50 years from now, should TIME magazine ask you for your reflections, you'll be able to recall an era exciting beyond all of your dreams."