Remarks at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 17, 1995

Thank you so much. Director Deutch and Mrs. Deutch, Deputy Director and Mrs. Tenet, Members of Congress, members of the Aspin Commission who are here, men and women of the intelligence community: I can't help thinking here at the Central Intelligence Agency that if we were giving intelligence awards today they would go to the people back there under the trees. [Laughter] Congratulations to all of you for your adaptation of the natural environment to the task at hand.

Before I begin my remarks today I'd like to take care of an important piece of business. Just a month ago it was with regret but great gratitude for his 32 years of service to our country that I accepted the resignation of Admiral Bill Studeman as the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. Today it is with great pleasure that I award him the President's National Security Medal. Admiral Studeman, Mrs. Studeman, please come up.

This is the highest award a member of our intelligence community, military or civilian, can receive. And no one deserves it more and the honor it represents. Most of you are well aware of Bill's extraordinary and exemplary career in the Navy, at the National Security Agency, and then here at the CIA. Let me say that as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, he served two Presidents and three DCI's. For two extended periods he took on the responsibilities of Acting Director. He provided continuity and leadership to this community at a time of change and great challenge. Here, in Congress, and throughout the executive branch, he earned a reputation for integrity, competence, and reliability of the highest order. He has dedicated his professional life to making the American people safer and more secure. And today it is only fitting among those who know best the contributions he has made to our country to award him this medal as a small measure of thanks for a job well done and a life well lived.

Thank you, Admiral.

You know as the Studemans make their way back to their chairs, I have to tell you that even though I have a lot of important things to say, I am loathe to make this speech in this heat. Once in the middle of a campaign for Governor I went up to a place in northeast Arkansas to make a speech for a county judge who was determined that I had to come to celebrate this road that he had built with funds that I gave him. He neglected to tell me that the road ended in the middle of a rice field. [Laughter] The only people that are laughing are the people that understand what this means. In the summertime in a rice field, there is nothing but heat and mosquitos. And a swarm of mosquitos came up in the middle of his introduction, literally hundreds of thousands of mosquitos. It was so bad that people were slapping at their cheeks and their legs and blood was streaming down people's faces and cheeks. And this judge was one of the rare people that mosquitoes would never bite. I had been Governor for 10 years; these people knew me better than he did. He took 6 minutes to introduce me. It seemed like it was 6 years. [Laughter] And I finally was introduced, and I gave the following speech: Folks, I have a good speech, if you want to hear it, come to the air-conditioned building down there. If we don't get out of here, we'll all die. If you reelect me, I'll kill every mosquito in the county. [Laughter]

I have to tell you that after that I never received less than two-thirds of the vote in that county. [Laughter] So I'm loath to give this speech. But I will cut it down and say what I have to say to you because it's very important that I say these things, and very important that America know that you're here and what you're doing.

Fifty-four years ago, in the weeks that led up to Pearl Harbor, there was a wide range of intelligence suggesting a Japanese attack that made its way to Washington. But there was no clear clearinghouse to collect the information and to get it to the decisionmakers. That is what led President Truman to establish a central intelligence organization.

In the years since, the men and women of the CIA and its sister agencies have done more than most Americans will or can ever know to keep our Nation strong and secure and to advance the cause of democracy and freedom around the world.

Today, because the cold war is over, some say that we should and can step back from the world and that we don't need intelligence as much as we used to, that we ought to severely cut the intelligence budget. A few have even urged us to scrap the central intelligence service. I think these views are profoundly wrong. I believe making deep cuts in intelligence during peacetime is comparable to canceling your health insurance when you're feeling fine.

We are living at a moment of hope. Our Nation is at peace, our economy is growing, all right. All around the world democracy and free markets are on the march. But none of these developments are inevitable or irreversible, and every single study of human psychology or the human spirit - every single religious tract tells us that there will be troubles, wars and rumors of war until the end of time.