REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT PRESENTATION OF NATIONAL SECURITY MEDAL TO VICE ADMIRAL WILLIAM P. RABORN, JR., UNITED STATES NAVY, RETIRED THE EAST ROOM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100110016-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2000
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: August 17, 1966
• Content Type: PREL

Approved For Release 2000/0 ? CIA RDP75-
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 17, 1966
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT PRESENTATION OF NATIONAL SECURITY
MEDAL TO VICE ADMIRAL WILLIAM F.
RABORN, JR., UNITED STATES NAVY, RETIRED
THE EAST ROOM
Admiral and Mrs. Raborn, Members of the Cabinet,
Members of the Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have come here today to recognize the character
and the accompls menu of a man who exemplifies the highest
traditions of public service.
Your career, Admiral Raborn, has been long and it
has been outstanding. You have excelled as a Navy officer in
combat. You have distinguished yourself in high command. You
have inspired and directed the highest order of technical
achievement culminating in the triumph of the Polaris subma-
rine which, under your personal guidance, was built and put
into operation well before most of the people thought it
could be done.
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Then, when you had gone to a well-earned retirement --
you had taken up another congenial occupation -- I called you
back to Washington asking you to undertake for your country
what may have been the most formidable task of your career.
You had no particular occasion to become intimately
familiar with the work of the,Central Intelligence Agency,
but you were willing to serve your country again. You
asked only that you might leave when a permanent director
had been selected.
In carrying out this assignment, Admiral Raborn,
you gave to the Agency the benefit of those qualities and
skills in which you are preeminent. Above all, you brought
your truly extraordinary capacity for management, for look-
ing to the future, for planning the further creative develop-
ment of an intricate organization.
I know that you leave with your associates the
impression of a warm and a sympathetic human personality.
They came to hold you in high regard and in esteem.
Your countrymen know of your role in the development
of the Polaris, but they cannot know of your accomplishments
in the equally crucial business of the Central Intelligence
Agency. It is the lot of those in our intelligence agen-
cies that they should work in silence -- sometimes fail in si-
lence, but more often succeed in silence.
Unhappily, also, it is sometimes their lot that
they must suffer in silence. For, like all in high public
position, they are occasionally subject to criticism which
they must not Answer.
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Secrecy in this work is essential. Achievements
and triumphs can seldom be advertised. Shortcomings and
failures often are advertised. The rewards can never come
in public acclaim, only in the quiet satisfaction of getting
on with the job and trying to do well the work that needs
to be done in the interests of your Nation.
The best intelligence is essential to the best
policy. So I am delighted that you have undertaken, as far
as security permits, to tell the public that it is well served
by the Central Intelligence Agency.
I am glad that there are occasions from time to
time when I, like my predecessors in this office, can also
express my deep confidence in the expert and dedicated ser-
vice of the personnel of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Admiral Raborn, for your contribution to this agency,
for your entire career of patriotic duty and high achievement,
I give you now the National Security Council Medal and its
citation. I shall read the citation:
"Summoned back to the councils of Government after
his retirement from a brilliant career in the naval service,
Admiral William F. Raborn was named Director of Central Intelli-
gence in 1965. With great ability and with wisdom gained from
past accomplishments, Admiral Raborn developed within the
Central Intelligence Agency an imaginative and systematic
management program resulting in incisive planning of long-
range intelligence needs and objectives. Ever conscious of
opportunities to improve the timeliness and usefulness of
the intelligence furnished to the leaders of our Government,
Admiral Raborn directed the establishment of new and improved
methods for continuous and timely monitoring of international
developments and for supplying United States Government leaders
with rapid assessments of those developments. As Director
of Central Intelligence, Admiral Raborn once again demonstrated
his ability to inspire subordinates to achieve high levels
of accomplishment. His distinguished achievements reflect
the high'.1t credit on him and enhance the finest traditions
of patriotic service to our Nation."
Thank you.
END AT 1:15 P.M. EDT
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