Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks at the Graduation Exercises of the FBI National Academy.

November 08, 1957

Mr. Hoover and My Friends:

To say that I am honored by this presentation 1 is indeed an understatement. To say that I am astonished and even astounded is perfectly true, particularly when you realize that on the way over here I was telling Mr. Hoover I couldn't think of a single secret we had in government that hadn't already appeared in the papers. And this one, he just reminded me, has been a well-kept secret.

1 Of an FBI badge.

I want to say one other thing: I am moved by the tenor of Dr. Peale's remarks--and just by the way, they appealed to me very deeply. He said that there must be an underlying deeply-felt religious faith if we are each to bear the burdens that are brought to our particular spot in our lives today, and in view of the tensions and ill-feeling and vituperation and bad words that we read in our papers about each other, sometimes internationally, sometimes closer to home.

I believe this thoroughly. For example--and I am personal for a moment, occupying the desk to which come possibly more messengers of fear, more stories of probable disaster and risk, more people who want more things that can't be given--anyone sitting there who did not believe that there is a Power that after all does govern the affairs of men, in my opinion would soon be in St. Elizabeths instead of in the White House.

And so I couldn't more emphatically endorse what he says today. As we go about our work and each of us in his own capacity does his best, then I believe if we are to be the great civilization that we are destined to be, we must remember there is a God whom we all trust.

I have been looking forward for a long, long time to coming to one of these exercises, for a very definite and specific reason: not merely because I admire Mr. Hoover so much as a citizen and as a man and for the reputation he has established in this country, and not merely because of my admiration for the FBI, but in this School--in its founding and in its conduct--is represented one of the things that I think has been too much missing from the American scene.

In 1935 when there seemed to be a wave of lawlessness in the land, when kidnapping seemed to be the favorite sport among the criminal element, there were those who--as usual seeking the easy way--said the Federal government will establish a police force. Had they succeeded in doing so, I believe it would have been a very great step toward the loss of the kind of America that was founded by our Fathers and handed to us. They even tempted Mr. Hoover by suggesting that he would be the head of such an organization. He emphatically opposed with all his power the establishment of such a wicked thing in this country. Out of his thinking was born this idea of cooperation between the Federal, the local and the State governments, and the individuals of our country, in order to bring about needed law enforcement and without imposing on our country one of the gestapos that in recent years was so popular in Europe.

I believe that of all of the debts that we owe to Mr. Hoover and the FBI, this is one of the greatest.

You, as police officers in our cities and our States, our counties, our sheriffs, our heads of institutions, are certainly on the first line of defense, for the simple reason that all defensive power that is applied to protecting us from without has its source, its founding, its strength, in the people of our land. If those people are not protected, if criminals could run riot among them, if they should find their morale shattered, their faith in the government shattered because there was not the peace officer to protect them, soon there would be no suitable outward defense.

So as our Armed Forces are responsible for the protection of this country from any threat directed from without, from whatever source, you are protecting us always from the threat from within.

I personally believe your work will never have reached the state of perfection that you would like, unless all of us throughout the land recognize its importance and do our part in supporting you. I think whenever a mistaken police judge, through favoritism, releases or turns loose one of the men you have brought in, with the proof that he has committed an offense against society, he is really as wicked as the man that committed the offense.

But I believe more than this. I believe that the citizens of our country who, having offended and want to use influence to escape the penalties for their own act, are by that act weakening themselves. They are violating the old adage, "If I have had my fun, I must pay for it." They should not be seeking this personal advantage over their fellows. On the contrary, they should be among those who would want to help give a medal to the man who would not be influenced and said, "No. You may be the rich man on the corner, but you are going to obey the law exactly as does your janitor who lives way down the street."

So as you have heard this type of ideal expressed here through these weeks that you have been privileged to attend the FBI School, as you have learned something of their techniques and imbibed something of their indomitable spirit, I am certain that each of you feels you are going back to your city, to your State, to your county, better qualified to do your job.

May I join Dr. Peale in congratulating you and wishing for you long life and health and an ever-rising place in your community, so that when they point to the law enforcement officer, they are saying, "There's a man of character, of integrity, of courage!"

Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke in the Departmental Auditorium. In the course of his remarks the President referred to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, pastor of the Marble Collegiate Reformed Church in New York City.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the Graduation Exercises of the FBI National Academy. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233925

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