THE CORNERSTONE CEREMONY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 3, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RD
THE
CORNERSTONE
CEREMONY
November 3; 1959
DOCUMENT NO.
DECLASSIFIED
r4 SS~ GI1~II 0: TS S C
NEXT R ?IATE:
AU R 70.2
29Ix:
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A0001e0050004-8
 5X1A9a
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
 Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
THE PRESIDENT'S REMARKS
America's fundamental aspiration is the preservation of peace. To
this end we seek to develop policies and arrangements to make the peace
both permanent and just. This can be done only on the basis of required
information.
In war nothing is more important to a commander than the facts
concerning the strength, dispositions and intention of his opponent, and
the proper interpretation of those facts. In peacetime the necessary
facts are of a different nature. They deal with conditions, resources,
requirements and attitudes prevailing in the world. They are essential
to the development of policy to further our long term national security
and best interests. To provide information of this kind is the task of
the organization of which you are a part.
No task could be more important.
Upon the quality of your work depends in large measure the success
of our effort to further the nation's position in the international scene.
By its very nature the work of this agency demands of its members
the highest order of dedication, ability, trustworthiness and selfless-
ness-to say nothing of the finest type of courage, whenever needed.
Success cannot be advertised: failure cannot be explained. In the work
of Intelligence, heroes are undecorated and unsung, often even among
their own fraternity. Their inspiration is rooted in patriotism-their
reward can be little except the conviction that they are performing a
unique and indispensable service for their country, and the knowledge
that America needs and appreciates their efforts. I assure you this is
indeed true.
The reputation of your organization for quality and excellence, under
the leadership of your Director, Mr. Allen Dulles, is a proud one.
Because I deeply believe these things, I deem it a great privilege to
participate in this ceremony of cornerstone laying for the national head-
quarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. On this spot will rise a
beautiful and useful structure. May it long endure, to serve the cause
of peace.
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 CIA-RDP78-04506A0001 f 0050004-8
 Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100650004-8
The law creating the Agency was voted by a Congress in which there
was a Republican majority. It was sponsored and signed by a Demo-
cratic President. For the past crucial years it has had the unfailing
support of a Republican President and a Democratic Congress.
Facts have no politics.
Our charter, in the carefully drafted provisions of the National Secu-
rity Act, has undergone no change. It provides that, under the direc-
tion of the President and of the National Security Council, the Agency
shall correlate and evaluate intelligence relating to the national security,
and perform such additional services of common concern in this field as
the National Security Council may direct.
Wisely this legislation provides that we should have no domestic
internal security functions. Yet the scope of the jurisdiction granted
is ample. Our work is broad and comprehensive enough to enlist the
interest and to inspire the devotion of those who choose, and are chosen,
to enter upon it.
Laws can create agencies of government; they cannot make them
function. Only the high purpose and dedication of all serving them
can weld them into effective instruments for our national security.
In this work of intelligence we must not forget that human beings are
largely the creatures of their beliefs. As individuals we tend instinc-
tively, and sometimes wistfully, to become attached to causes, to theories,
to solutions.
If they be sound and enduring, based on the deep moral strivings of
man and the highest conception of our national interests, let us cling to
them. But in the field of our relations with our fellowmen abroad, let
us assure ourselves, through accurate intelligence, that our attachments
to policies are soundly based.
It is the particular duty of this Agency to help perform this function
in a world where change is the rule rather than the exception. This
task must be carried out fearlessly, without warping to meet our,prej-
udices or our predilections or even the tenets of existing policy.
As we build a new edifice in which to house, to concentrate and coord-
inate our work, we must rededicate ourselves to this high purpose.
The guiding motto to be inscribed on the face of this building will be
the words taken from the Gospel according to St. John: "Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
The President of the United States has graciously consented to lay
the cornerstone.
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 CIA-RDP78-04506AQ.001(tOO50004-8
 Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
THE REV. DR. FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS
Chaplain of the United States Senate
0, Thou God and Father of mankind,
Who putteth down the mighty from their seats and exalteth the humble and
the meek. Thou hast made us heirs of all the ages. As in this high hour we come
with our fallible hands to lay the cornerstone of the noble structure which is
here to rise as a witness to Thy truth which makes men free, we lift our hearts
in gratitude for the greatness of our heritage bequeathed to us over the struggling
ages by those who, amid ignorance and barbarism and man's inhumanity to man,
struck light from the flint of their own courage. Thou hast made us heirs of
those who pushed forward, turning harshness into mercy, callousness into sym-
pathy, enmity into understanding, and who through the practice of their concern
for others melted away hatred.
As we lay this stone conscious that others have put the torch of freedom and
of human dignity in our hands, we pray for a new resolve now that the precious
gains of Christian civilization are threatened by sinister forces without pity or
conscience, that we may guard it and nourish it and increase it, that we of the
present may be worthy of the past and that the future may look to us with
gratitude.
In spite of our own shortcomings which we confess with contrition, in this
hour of global crisis Thou hast summoned us as trustees of Thy truth to defend
our birthright and to help create institutions essential to human progress.
In this dear land of our love and prayer may we close our national ranks in
a new unity, as principalities of darkness seek to destroy the precious things we
hold nearest our hearts and to enslave all mankind with fetters of the body and
mind which degrade the individual.
In this titanic struggle of the ages may this building whose cornerstone we
now lay with a prayer to the God Who hath made and preserved us a nation, be
a cathedral of truth, an arsenal of freedom, an armory for battalions marshaled
against deceit and falsehood, a fortress of patience and persistence where a
patriotism pure and undefiled, as harmless as a dove but as wise as a serpent,
shall help make our republic sufficient for the tasks before her set.
Amen.
And now Thou Lord and Master of all good workmen,
Whate'er our name or sign.
On this stone now laid with prayer
Let our faith rise strong and fair.
Ever Lord Thy-name be known
Where we lay this cornerstone.
Send us forth as ambassadors of that peace which comes of purity and of
strength to simple justice due - for so runs our loyal dream of our America. God
of our fathers make it true.
Unto God's gracious mercy and protection we commit you. May the Lord lift,
up to the light of His countenance upon you and give you peace. May He instruct
you with the word of His truth and enrich you with the glory of His love as to-
gether we go forth in His name.
To be true to all truth the world denies,
Not tongue-tied by its gilded lies,
Not always right in all men's eyes,
But faithful to the light within.
Amen.
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
 5X1 A9a
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
Next 1 Page(s) In Document Exempt
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
 Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
Washington Post and Times Herald
November 4, 1959
Ike Lays Cornerstone
For New CIA Building
CPYRGHT
By Edward T. Folliard
Staff Reporter
terday laid the cornerstone of
an 8-story building for the
Central Intelligence Agency
on the Virginia bank of the
Potomac near Langley. He ex-
tolled those who gather infor-
mation for the Agency.
"No task could be more im-
portant" he told Director
Allen Dulles and others of
the CIA.
The Central Intelligence
Agency, the need for which
was made apparent by World
War II and the threat of in-
ternational communism after-
ward, was sponsored 12 years
ago by President Harry S.
Truman and established by
the Republican-controlled 80th
Congress.
Its offices and employes
have been scattered in various
buildings here, some of them
"tempos" that will come down
when the new $46 million
structure at Langley Is com-
pleted in 1961.
Flies to Gettysburg
President Eisenhower, on
his way from the White House
to Langley, stopped off to snip
a red, white and blue ribbon.
and open a new stretch of the
George Washington Memorial
After the cornerstone-laying
ceremony, he boarded a
Marine Corps helicopter and
flew to Gettysburg, Pa., to cast
his vote in a state election.
CIA Director Dulles, in a
speech that followed that of
the President, said that those
who gather intelligence for
this country have to beware
that prejudices or predilec-
tions do not slant their re-
ports.
He said the motto on the
face of the new building would
be a passage from St. John:
"Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you
free."
The CIA Building, which is
being constructed on a Gov-
ernment-owned tract of 140
acres, will have central air-
conditioning, s e 1 f-operated
automatic elevators and a cafe.
teria and smaller dining room
to seat 1400 at one time. There
will be parking space for 3000
cars.
Architects for the building
are Harrison & Abramovitz,
with Frederic R. King as asso-
ciate architect. The building
is being erected by Charles H.
Tompkins Co. and J. A. Jones
Co. The Public Buildings
Service of the General Serv-
ices Administration is con-
tract agent for the building
and Is supervising the work.
Approved For Release 1999/09/10 : CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
 Approved For Relea~ pjk / 9/10: CIA-RDP78-04506A000100050004-8
{
.,PYYRGH
New York Times
November 4, 1959
PRESIDENT HAILS
C. I. A. OPERATIVES
Calls Thein'Unsung Heroes'
in Dedicating New 'Cloak
and Dagger' Building
By FELIX BELAIR Jr.
ng.
tipecl.l to Th. N