 will you remain standing while the United States Marine Corps band plays the national anthem. Mr. President, the President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you all. Ladies and gentlemen of the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence community, so important is the work you perform that it's a plain statement of fact to say in gathering here today to swear in your new director, William Webster, we have come together for an event that will shape our nation's history and affect the course of freedom throughout the world. The Central Intelligence Agency finds its roots in the earliest days of the Republic. General George Washington said that intelligence service demands those on, quote, whose firmness and fidelity we may safely rely. During World War II, dedicated Americans answered the call, sometimes the ultimate call, in the Office of Strategic Services. Their creativity and achievement remained the building blocks for today. Among those was the late Bill Casey, whose determination and personal courage in the clandestine effort against Adolf Hitler meant the difference between victory and defeat. While the world changed in 45 years since the OSS was founded, his capacity for leadership did not, nor did the devotion of the men and women of our intelligence services. From the days in the late 70s where we found America's intelligence capabilities reduced and demoralized, today our intelligence community performs a vital role in the struggle against international terrorism and drug trafficking. It exposes and counters the huge menacing apparatus of Soviet espionage and propaganda and scouts' future challenges. Unfortunately, many of your successes can only be celebrated in private. But those of us in the executive branch in the Congress know about these gallant efforts and recognize, for example, verifying arms reduction agreements and the continued expansion of freedom must rest on a solid intelligence foundation. So we have a responsibility to assure the American people that they have the best intelligence service in the world and that it is staffed by honorable men and women who work within the framework of our laws and our shared values. It has become fashionable in some quarters to act as if the Central Intelligence Agency were somehow not completely a part of our own government as if it were not constantly working against hostile powers who threaten the security of the American people. But our liberty, a way of life, requires eternal vigilance. The United States cannot survive in the modern world without a vigorous intelligence agency capable of acting swiftly and in secret. So long as I am president, I will never consent to see our intelligence capability undermined. As Bill Casey said only a short time before his death, this is not an arena, quote, for tender egos or shrinking violence. The clashes and ideas can get rough. No one's views are protected from challenge, nor is the CIA the place for the cynical or the merely curious. It is instead a place for people who are aware of the world and who are ready and willing to make a commitment to serve their country in a challenging environment where one person can indeed make a difference. William Hedgecock Webster is just such a man. After service with the Naval Reserve during two wars, he began a legal career of extraordinary accomplishment that would last a quarter century and culminate in distinguished terms as judge of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri and as U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In 1978, President Carter appointed him director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The late 70s were a difficult time for the FBI, and in leaving the bench, Judge Webster was forfeiting a lifetime post and work that he loved. Even so, he stated that he looked on the assignment as, quote, a great adventure. Even so, he asserted his absolute determination, quote, to maintain the high standards and traditions of the FBI. Asked why he was so willingly taking upon himself so heavy a burden, Judge Webster answered simply, I'm an old Navy man and I heard a boson's pipe. That remark alone says a great deal about the judge. He does not look upon his nation's call to duty as something onerous, something to be endured. He looks upon it instead as something inviting, something even invigorating, a boson's pipe. During these past nine years, Judge Webster has done more than maintain the standards of the FBI. He has raised them. The Bureau under Judge Webster has for the first time become expert in drug investigations and white collar crime. It has made innovative use of high technology equipment, and I've often spoke of the need for dramatic, historic strikes against organized crime and praised the FBI's brilliant role in this endeavor. Morale on the FBI has soared. Today, the Bureau is a proud institution, thoroughly imbued with a sense of public service, and confidence in the Bureau and the part of Congress, the President, and most important, the American people. This confidence is strong and vital. Judge Webster, I know that as you leave the FBI and you leave behind much that you will miss, and I know that your colleagues in the Bureau will want to join me as, on behalf of the American people, I thank you for a job well done. Now the boson's pipe is sounded. In becoming director today of the Central Intelligence Agency, Judge Webster is stepping up to the leadership of an institution that is, by its very nature, a likely subject of controversy, yet it is also irreplaceable. The CIA routinely places demands upon its employees that would elsewhere be deemed outrageous, yet it offers them the satisfaction of keeping freedom's candle burning. And now, Judge Webster, we turn over to you the stewardship of this devoted group of men and women. Their mission is nothing less than the defense of liberty. Just consider the agency's history, and although these specific undertakings must remain secret, today this agency uses all its resources to advance the cause of freedom. So, Judge Webster, we ask you to maintain this agency's high standards as you pledge to maintain those of the FBI. We ask you to lead the Central Intelligence Agency on to still greater service to our nation. And we know that, given your service at the FBI, given your entire career in leading this great and vital institution, you will make it greater still. I can't resist closing with one story about the Judge that will give all of you at the agency an insight into your new director. It seems that when Attorney General Griffin Bell first approached the Judge about taking the FBI job back in 1978, Judge Webster had a few doubts, serious doubts. According to one account, when the Judge came to Washington, he and the Justice Department officials sat down and very carefully went over all the reasons he shouldn't take the job. Sure enough, they were good reasons, and it looked for a while as though the Judge would return to St. Louis to go right on being a Judge. And then one official said, simply this, Judge, I can think of no reason for you to accept the appointment unless you want to make a patriotic gift to your country. I guess that was when you heard the whistle. Thank you all. God bless you. The oath of office will now be administered by Mr. Justice Powell. Would you please stand for the ceremony? Judge Webster, your daughter is holding a Bible. If you place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand, I will now administer the oath of office. If you repeat after me, I, William H. Webster, do solemnly swear. I, William H. Webster, do solemnly swear. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Against all enemies, domestic and foreign. Against all enemies, domestic and foreign. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely. That I take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. For purpose of evasion. For purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge. And that I will well and faithfully discharge. The duties of the office on which I am about to enter. The duties of the office upon which I am about to enter. So help you God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Mr. President, that Boson pipe sounded more like the referee's opening whistle at a new ball game. It was not Newt Rockney who issued the call to duty. This time it was from the Geper himself. I must tell you that the congressional line of scrimmage was a tough one. But I think the final score made the qualifying game worthwhile and I'm now ready for the main event. Mr. Vice President, I'm honored by your presence here today with the President. And this organization feels honored by your presence and remembers so well your service as DCI. Mr. Justice Powell, particularly pleased that you were the one to swear me in today. Not only because of our long professional and personal friendship, but because of your distinguished service to the work of American intelligence in World War II when you served on the Ultra Project in England. And for the enormous contribution that you made in establishing the National Security Committee of the American Bar Association. Attorney General Meese, I appreciate your coming out today and you know how difficult it is for me to leave the Department of Justice after so many years. But I know that you and I will be working closely together in matters of national security in the years ahead. And I think your presence symbolizes the important role that the Department of Justice plays in our national security in a government of laws and not of men. Deputy Director Gates, I want to thank you not only for your tremendous help to me throughout the confirmation process and in getting ready for this appearance, but also for your distinguished service as Acting Director during the past five years, five months. You have always placed this agency and your country first. And I am looking very much forward to working with you in the future. And I want to thank Drew and all the members of my family, my children who are here today for their support and their abiding love through all these years. Today I leave one proud institution in American life, the FBI, to join another one, the Central Intelligence Agency. I want very much to be worthy of Bill Casey, my good friend, and all of those who have led this great agency so well in times past. I come with profound respect for all that has been achieved and with a deep awareness of the enormous challenges that face the intelligence community in the years ahead. There are some today who can hear my voice but who cannot share the sunlight of this occasion because our country needs their anonymity. I simply want to salute these unseen soldiers of democracy and say that I am proud to join their team. These times require far more than just the designation of a new Director of Central Intelligence. We must continue to attract into this vitally important agency the finest, most inquiring minds, courageous hearts, dedicated Americans, men and women who consider service in this crucial work more important than fame or wealth and worthy of their highest aspirations for a better and a safer world. Mr. President, you have the trust, the loyalty, the love and respect of the men and women of the CIA. I pledge to you that we will work closely with those who must make the policy recommendations that define our present and shape our future, providing our assessments objectively, professional,