LETTER TO C. BOYDEN GRAY FROM LEE S. STRICKLAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G01353R001500220007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 14, 1988
• Content Type: LETTER

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CONTROL NO
CROSS REP
PRIOR PAPERS ON THIS SUBJECT. NO YES
PRIOR CORRES SENT TO.
CROSS REF:
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Central Intelligence Agency
MIshingorlD.C.2M5
Mr. C. Boyden Gray
Counsellor to the Vice President
Office of the Vice President of the United States
Room 280, Old Executive Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20501
Dear Mr. Gray:
The Central Intelligence Agency is currently reviewing our quarterly
publication, Studies in Intelligence, in anticipation of releasing some of the
articles to the public under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.
In our Fall 1983 issue (Volume 27, Number 3), we reprinted a speech given
by %/Ice President Bush at the Veterans of OSS dinner on 24 May 1983 on the
occasion of the presentation of the Wm. J. Donovan award to another former
Director of Central Intelligence, Mr. Richard Helms. A copy is attached.
The speech, given before an open forum, was, of course, not classified. The
Office of our present Director, Judge Webster, has reviewed the speech and has
no objection to its release, but has requested that your office be notified of
this pending FOIA request and proposed release.
If you have any questions about this matter, pfease do not hesitate to
contact me on
Sincerely,
Information and Privacy Coordinator
STAT
STAT
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Role of intelligence
THE OBJECTIVE IS TO KEEP THE PEACE
From an address by Vice President George Bush at the Veterans of the
OSS Dinner and presentation of the William J. Donovan Award to the
Honorable Richard Helms.
...1'm honored to be here tonight participating in this ceremony, because
I can't think of anyone who deserves the Donovan Award more than Dick
Helms. Having inherited his Sob at CIA?if only for a short time?I gained a
real respect and admiration for the magnitude of Dick's accomplishment over
there.
Before Dick got into intelligence he was working for the other side?the
press. In the thirties, Dick was a correspondent for United Press in London and
later, Berlin, where be observed first hand the developments in the Nazi
government. He was even able to get a personal interview with Adolph Hitler.
I hear tell that this meeting was mentioned in the so-called Hitler diaries,
although the scholars apparently became suspicious when the diaries referred
to Dick as the future director of the CIA.
Anyway, Dick joined up early with Wild Bill Donovan's OSS, organizing
intelligence networks from his vantage point in England and other stations
throughout Europe.
Still serving in the OSS after the war, he closely observed Soviet methods
and intransigence in Germany and Berlin. What he learned. then made Dick
Helms decide to stay on in government service. He became convinced that the
United States would face many threats in the post-war world, and he realized
that effective intelligence was vital if the democratic societies were to be able
to defend themselves against those threats.
It's hard to imagine now, but in 1940 and 1941, Bill Donovan was a one-
man CIA for Franklin Roosevelt. The OSS was brought into being in great part
simply through the force of Donovan's determined personality.
A More Threatening Situation
Well, after World War II, it took other forceful personalities to define the
role of our intelligence service in a very different, but equally threatening
world situation. One might even say that with the introduction of nuclear
weapons into the equation, the situation became even more threatening than it
had been in the past. Dick Helms was instrumental in helping define that role.
He has dedicated a good part of his life to the development of an Agency that
is second to none in intelligence gathering and analysis. But just as important,
one that could exist within a free and democratic society.
It has been said that the role of secret intelligence in a democratic society
will always be an uncomfortable one. Secrecy is not what democratic societies
are all about. They're about free and open discussion, the free and open
exchange of ideas and information.
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Keep the Peace
Unfortunately, there are certain unpleasant realities that we can't ignore.
We must live in a world made insecure by international terrorism and
expansionist totalitarian powers.
But the CIA can be very proud of the fact that at the same time that it is
working tirelessly to protect American freedoms from foreign threats, it is
fastidious in respecting the laws of the land. The CIA is conscientiously
upholding the law, safeguarding the rights of American citizens.
I was asked at a press conference the other day how, as a politician, I
would justify to the American people being head of the CIA. I said that I wear
my directorship of that organization as a badge of honor. I've always
considered my service there as an asset rather than a liability, and I'll feel that
way till the day I die. I don't think I'd be standing here in this job right now if
the American people felt any differently. I think they want a strong
intelligence service. I think anybody realizes that in a world as troubled as this
you need the best possible intelligence.
Excellence and Commitment
I'm proud of the time I was in the CIA, because I'm proud of the men and
women who serve there. 1 can't praise highly enough the academic excellence
of our intelligence community, and the commitment of these people who have
put in a lifetime of service to their country?many of them anonymously.
They never get to sit at the head table; they never see their names up in lights.
But all of us are profoundly grateful that these extraordinarily talented and
dedicated people have sacrificed their place in the sun so that the rest of us
may live secure in our freedom.
I've been doing a lot of traveling recently, and my sense of things is that
the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate inclination to tear down our intelligence
agencies is behind us now. I think we all realize that we must build on what we
have, and that we must give our intelligence community the support it needs
to enable it to get its job done.
You know, just one indication of how essential our intelligence has become
in this world is that we couldn't even begin to think about arms control if we
didn't have a CIA and an intelligence community to check upon the other side
to make sure they're playing by the rules. A negotiated settlement on strategic
weapons must ultimately rely on intelligence for its verifiability....
Well, I look at the CIA as a kind of preventative medicine. The objective
is to keep the peace by keeping ourselves informed and our national security
apparatus strong and healthy; that way it won't become necessary to fight a
war, as it did almost a half-century ago, because we have grown weak or be-
cause an enemy misjudges the firmness of our resolve.
Maybe there will come a time in the future when the world will be a hap-
pier place, free from the threat of nuclear war and no longer torn by
international hostilities. When that time comes, it will be in no small measure
due to the dedication and selfless service of men like Dick Helms who have
devoted their lives and invested their great skills and imaginations in creating
an intelligence agency of unparalleled professioruilism and expertise?and in
the proem making this a safer and more peaceful world for all of us.
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ISD/JOE/LSS/6 April 1988
Distribution:
Orig - Adse
1 - ISD Chrono
1 - ISD Subject
1 - LSS Signer
1 - ISD Circulate
1 - C/MG/OIT
1 - DD/OIT
1 - D/OIT
1 - DDA
Library: freedom
ID#: 14428
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