OBSERVANCE OF VIETNAM VETERAN'S WEEK 1979

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01554R003000160001-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 1, 1979
• Content Type: SPEECH

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OBSERVANCE OF VIETNAM VETERAN'S WEEK 1979
DCI's Remarks
Friday, 1 June 1979
Good afternoon. I think it is very fitting that we here at the
Agency take these few moments to join in national recognition of the
Vietnam Veteran's Week and remember those countrymen and women who
served in that conflict area.
I think there is a particular bond between the Agency and the
military in this respect. Over 2,000 of our present employees served
in Vietnam in military uniform. But even more importantly, over 2,200
CIA employees themselves served the Agency in Vietnam--1,100 of them
still being on service with us-- and served in Vietnam, of course,
shoulder to shoulder with the United States military. And, as a result,
today we honor the Armed Forces in Vietnam Veteran's Week but we
equally honor our Agency employees who served there with equal distinc-
tion. And I think it is appropriate we do this recognition here
because out of that common experi-ence in Vietnam, we have some very
special links together with the military veterans.
To begin with, the Vietnam conflict, as we all recognize, is one
of the most divisive political experiences in the history of our
country or any country. There was between the individuals in our
country no great agreement on whether we should or should not have been
involved in Vietnam. The military were no different than the rest of
the population. They were divided in their individual views on the
desirability of fighting in that war.
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But collectively, the military in a democratic society must be
apolitical. It cannot take sides. It must make its views known and
then, when a political decision is made, it must carry out its orders.
The United States military did that, and did it to the best of its
ability in Vietnam.
But there is the special link with us in the Agency because we can
particularly appreciate that ethic. It is not unlike the responsibility
we shoulder. Our personal views of what the nation's policy should be
in the countries where we operate must be subordinated in the long run
to the national view and the national policy that our political leaders
decide. Our actions overseas, particularly of course, in the covert
action area, must be dictated by the national policy.
There is still a second area in which we have much in common with
the military and their experience in Vietnam. And that is that the
United States military was sent to Vietnam to fight a war under a set
of ground rules which, virtually, precluded winning. Winning is important
to Americans. Winning is particularly important to the military man.
It is the only real test of all his preparation, all his training and
thinking. It is the single objective behind the military machine.
With that goal removed in Vietnam it was, of course, a very frustrating
experience for many of our military personnel.
We here in the Agency can sympathize and share that also because
we, too, are professionals. We, too, are honorable people. We,
too, are people who want to do the job; in our sense, want to win.
We, too, have seen, particularly in the post-Vietnam era, what seemed
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to us to be unnecessary, undesirable restrictions and restrictive
micro-management placed upon us. So, again, we have something in
common with these Vietnam veterans we honor this week.
Finally, we have in common the fact that the citizens of our country
who opposed the Vietnam war came to realize that the most obvious
symbol of their opposition, of their resistance to what the government
was doing, was the military man in uniform. The uniform in the military
became something of an embarassment in that time, a target of scorn.
And I found that young military personnel were shunning their uniforms
when not required to wear them. But far more serious than that even,
the military men who were lucky enough to come home from Vietnam--some
of them badly wounded--found that they came home to a country that was
divided, a country that was going to criticize what they had done
and that for which they had sacrificed, rather than praise them which,
r
of course, is our tradition for the military man who has fought for his
country and perhaps sacrificed on the battlefield.
I have a particularly poignant personal experience in that regard
because one of my closest friends was a prisoner of war for seven
and a half years and came home physically maimed. And yet, came home
to make an adjustment from a country which, when he left it and went
into prison camp, was still generally supporting this war which had
really just begun and when he came back, was very divided and unflattering
as to those who had participated in it. A terribly wrenching experience
for a dedicated American who had sacrificed so much physically and
mentally for his country. Never before in the history of our country
have our patriots been treated thus. ,
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And so, too, we in the Agency have much in common here because,
I am afraid, we can appreciate and understand this unfortunate lack
of appreciation and understanding by a country for what are necessary,
.honorable, and dedicated sacrifices that we, as an Agency, have made
over the years and which have been subject to undue and unnecessary
criticism.
Let us remember then that as we honor the Vietnam veterans, we
honor also the Agency veterans of Vietnam and we recognize that together
we have much in common in recognizing the similarities between the
problems the military had in Vietnam and the basic ethics and responsi-
bilities that govern our lives here in the Central Intelligence Agency.
America is a great country, not because of the strength of our
military or even our economic prowess, but because of the strength of
Americans like those military men and women who served in Vietnam and
like those Agency men and women who served there with them. Let us be
grateful that we had their service in such dedication and such abundance.
Thank you.
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