    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [November 20, 1993]
    [Pages 2036-2038]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the United States Coast Guard in Seattle
    November 20, 1993

        Thank you very much. This is a warm reception in more ways than one.
    And after a cold day on the boat, it's a wonderful thing to behold.
        I want to thank Admiral Lockwood and Captain Murray and all the men
    and women of the Coast Guard for the wonderful assistance that I have
    received today and that our Nation receives every day.
        The Blake Island meeting I think was a great success. Indeed, these
    have been a good few

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    days for the United States. We had the leaders of 14 of the Asian-
    Pacific nations here in Seattle for a couple of days. We represent 40
    percent of the world's people, half the world's economy, the fastest
    growing economies in the world. And I can tell you that the spirit of
    this meeting was incredibly positive, people believing that we had to
    reach out even more to one another, we had to lower our barriers, we had
    to make it possible for all of us to grow in peace and harmony and
    prosperity. It's the sort of thing that people join the Coast Guard of
    the United States to make sure happens. And you should feel very good
    about it.
        And of course, when the Congress--the House of Representatives
    passed the North American Free Trade Agreement the other night--you say,
    ``That's about Mexico and Canada. What does that have to do with all
    these other countries?'' The Prime Minister of Singapore got up in our
    meeting, and he said, ``I don't know what would have happened if
    Congress had voted that treaty down because the rest of us would have
    thought that America was going to turn away from the world. We would
    have said that you weren't going to be there.''
        Instead you had the President of Korea, the President of the
    Philippines, you had the President of Indonesia, the Prime Minister of
    Thailand, all these people saying, ``We want you to be involved in our
    future. We want the future of Pacific to be a united Pacific, not a
    divided Pacific. We want it to be an open future, not a closed future.
    We want our diversity to be a source of strength.''
        Even in our differences, we found a way to talk. As you know, the
    discussion I had with the President of China was the first discussion
    that the leader of the United States has had with the leader of the
    world's most populous country and the fastest growing economy on the
    Earth since the unfortunate incidents at Tiananmen Square. So we began
    at least to have a conversation about our differences as well as what we
    have in common. This was a remarkable meeting.
        To have the Prime Minister of Japan, a genuine reformer, a person
    who is committed to changing his country and the way it relates to the
    rest of the world, including the United States, in positive ways, come
    here and sit for a whole day today and listen, as did I, to the other
    leaders and talk about what kind of common ground we could find, it was
    very moving.
        And then when we got off the boat tonight, they told me, Congressman
    McDermott, that the Senate passed NAFTA a few minutes ago and then
    passed the Brady bill. So it's been a good day for the United States. So
    I would say that the 200 years that the Coast Guard has been there for
    America and her people have been well rewarded by the work that has been
    done for America in these last few days.
        I would say, Captain Murray, your obvious and genuine heartfelt
    emotion at this moment is justified by what a wonderful country this is
    and what great people we have in the United States Coast Guard. I know
    you were there to help the victims of Hurricane Andrew; to assist those
    who were washed away by the flooding in the Midwest, the worst flood in
    well over 100 years; to work with the Red Cross and the people of
    California to help to fight the deadly wildfires.
        On any day, the Coast Guard, on average, will save the lives of 16
    people and help 360 others in distress. That's a pretty good record. In
    a place like Seattle, people understand the importance of your work. I
    hope by my coming here today and the publicity that this visit will
    generate, that Americans everywhere will understand how much they owe to
    the United States Coast Guard.
        A lot of Americans don't know about your efforts to stem the flow of
    illegal drugs, but it helps to make every community safer. And I want to
    tell you that we're looking for new and innovative ways to do more of
    that and ways that are more effective. Your work in tracking foreign
    fishing fleets helps protect the important American industry and
    strengthens our economy. Your work in responding to some 8,000 oil and
    chemical spills a year helps protect the environment that all Americans
    cherish and enjoy. Your support for scientific work, such as with your
    icebreakers in the Arctic, adds to the entire Nation's research base at
    a time when we need desperately to invest more in research and
    development for our future economy as well as for our environmental
    security. Your efforts in monitoring the seas for the growing influx of
    illegal immigrants also serves our national interests in a difficult
    area. And in times of war, you and the entire Coast Guard stand ready to
    protect our Nation in the most fundamental ways. The Coast Guard has
    long helped to augment our naval forces through work like antisubmarine
    and surface warfare. For all of these

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    efforts, your Nation and your President are in your debt.
        Your work underscores a crucial point: In order to make life better
    for people within our borders, we often need to take actions beyond our
    borders. As modern transportation and communications make the world
    smaller and smaller, we must engage abroad to succeed at home. And that
    was the whole point of this meeting we had on Blake Island.
        I spent the better part of a year and a half campaigning to the
    American people in the race for President. And everywhere I went I said
    that we had reached a time when there was no longer an easy dividing
    line between foreign policy and domestic policy, between defense policy
    and economic policy, that clearly we could not be strong abroad if we
    were not strong at home but that it was no longer possible for a wealthy
    country to have a strong economy at home without being involved abroad
    and succeeding and winning in the global competitive economy.
        Clearly, our Nation could not be secure without a strong defense,
    but in these tough economic times we could not pay for a strong defense
    without a strong economy. And so, every day and especially during the
    budgetary season, I will be required to make some very difficult
    decisions. Some of the calls will be right, and occasionally I will
    doubtless make some of them wrong. But I want you to know that every
    call will be determined on the basis of what I honestly believe is best
    for the long-term security and prosperity of the American people, based
    on those simple ideas.
        There is no longer a simple dividing line between defense policy and
    economic policy, no longer a clear line between foreign policy and
    domestic policy. America, like it or not, is part of a world that is
    increasingly more interdependent, a world in which we are rewarded when
    we are productive and aggressive in selling our products and services,
    and in which we are punished if we refuse to compete.
        There are those who long for a world in which the American people
    could be more secure and more immune from change. I, at least, long for
    a world in which we are more secure. But we cannot do it by trying to
    immunize ourselves from change. No free society is immune from the winds
    blowing through the world today. We have to find a way to make these
    changes our friend and not our enemy. We have to find a way to train
    every American as well as the men and women of the Coast Guard are
    trained to do their job. We have to find a way to give people the sense
    that they will have access to learning and relearning for a lifetime. We
    have to find a way to invest in those things which will give the promise
    of real hope and opportunity. And I say to you as Americans, we have got
    to find a way to give structure, order, discipline, hope, and love back
    to those millions of American children who do not have the daily
    supports that you take for granted if you're a member of the United
    States Coast Guard, but without which life is very difficult to live on
    successful terms.
        I hope today as we look out on these beautiful waters and remember
    that our history and our heritage are rooted to the sea, that most of
    our Americans came across the oceans to get here to become Americans,
    that we must, just like we did in the beginning, be a nation that
    reaches out across the seas to new markets and new opportunities and new
    horizons.
        To those of our friends and neighbors in the Pacific and elsewhere,
    we're going through a difficult and challenging time. Not all our roads
    are easy. But this is a time which we should be grateful to live in, for
    after all, the cold war is over; the threat of nuclear destruction
    recedes. The hopes of people really have a chance to be realized in a
    peaceful environment. And many of the problems we have are problems of
    our own making that we can unmake if we have the discipline and will and
    vision and sheer persistence to face them and work them through.
        Therefore, I say to you that I value your service and your
    sacrifice, your talent and your dedication, not only because you help to
    make our Nation stronger but because I hope that every time an American
    citizen sees you in this uniform, that that will help us to remember
    what kind of people we are and where we need to go.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:59 p.m. at the Seattle Coast Guard
    Support Center gymnasium at Pier 36. In his remarks, he referred to Rear
    Adm. Joseph W. Lockwood, USCG, 13th district commander, and Capt.
    Charles W. Murray, USCG, commanding officer, Seattle Coast Guard Support
    Center. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
    these remarks.