Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Thank you very much.
Admiral Turner and distinguished leaders,
members of the Central Intelligence Agency,
it is a pleasure for me to be back out here to meet
with you and to express again my feelings about our
Nation and about what you do to protect it and to make it
even greater than it already is.
A year and a half I was here for my first visit,
the time of the swearing-in ceremony of the Director,
Admiral Stan Turner.
I've told many groups that one of the most pleasant
surprises that I have had as President of our country has
been the quality of work done by the Central
Intelligence Agency, and I want to thank you for that.
You've made my job easier.
The decisions that I must make on a daily basis
require objective and accurate,
unbiased analyses of very complicated issues.
It's difficult for someone in my position to
distinguish between the appearance of things and the
actual facts, the reality of them.
And you do a superb job in trying to bring to me and
others who make opinions and then make decisions about
what our Nation should do in the pursuit of our own goals
and purposes, in the enhancement of our own
ideals and principles.
In the last number of years, the purpose of the CIA has
been changing.
Your assignment is different now from what it was.
There was a time not too long ago when your almost
unique responsibility was to assess the activities and
the potential activities of the Soviet Union.
That, obviously, is still one of the important
assignments that you have.
But now your duties extend to the analysis of almost
every region of the world, almost every country on
Earth, our close allies and friends.
We need to understand their special problems,
their special opportunities, how we can work better with
them, the attitude of their people;
to study food production, agriculture, forestry,
economics, mining, labor;
a very, very complicated, very diverse analysis
problem for you all.
I know the heroism demonstrated by many of you.
Nathan Hale, who is recognized here and who
died, I believe, 202 years ago,
said, "My only regret is that I have only one life to
give for my country."
Behind me in this auditorium are commemorated 35 agents
of the CIA who have given their lives for the service
of our country, not adequately recognized for
heroism, some not even recognized by name,
17 of them.
Their names are not even known or revealed,
because they lost their lives for our country in
clandestine operations.
But all of you represent the attitude and the commitment,
the willingness to sacrifice,
the patriotism of those who gave the supreme sacrifice.
I think the relations between the CIA and the
American public have been substantially improved in
recent months.
The relationship between the CIA and the Congress has
been substantially improved in recent months.
Some who have been here for many,
many years have had an inclination to be concerned
about the increased openness,
the willingness of Stan Turner and myself to let the
American people know who you are,
what you do, some aspects of your work,
which don't violate security of our country,
and there's a growing appreciation for what this
agency does, what you individually do for our nation.
But there is a conflict with which you need to help me,
and that is the balancing between legitimate openness,
which enhances your work and protects the interest of our
country on one hand, and the careful preservation of
security, the non-revelation of secrets which you hold
which can be very damaging to our nation if revealed.
It takes intelligence, it takes sound judgment,
it takes common sense to draw that distinction.
But those are characteristics which you
exhibit very well every day.
I'd like to say in closing that I appreciate what you
are, what you do, the high professionalism,
training, education, experience that you bring to
your job and which you demonstrate every day with
your good work, the honesty and integrity that you
present to me and to your other superiors,
to the Congress, to the public for critical examination.
You almost are in the position of being like
Caesar's wife; you have to be even more pure and more
clean and more decent and more honest than almost any
persons who serve in government,
because the slightest mistake on your part is
highly publicized and greatly magnified,
whereas your great achievements and successes
quite often are not publicized and are not
recognized, and they certainly are never exaggerated.
I'm glad that we have this partnership.
There is now a stability in the CIA which has been
brought by Admiral Turner and joined by Frank Carlucci
that I hope will permeate your lives for many months,
many years to come.
There have been too many shocks,
too many rapid changes in the past,
but the policies that have now been established by
Executive order, by sound decisions,
by cooperation, and in the future by law,
will give you a much surer sense of what the future
will bring, will liberate you individually,
in effect, to make your own beneficial impact in our
country be even greater.