    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 13, 1993]
    [Pages 1372-1376]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in Alameda, California
    August 13, 1993

        Thank you very much, Secretary Perry, Admiral Ruck, Admiral Briggs,
    Secretary of the Navy Dalton, Acting Secretary of the Army Shannon. The
    other people on this platform with me are essential to the partnership
    that I seek to establish and continue here today: Secretary of Commerce
    Ron Brown, who has been instructed by me to head the administration's
    efforts to develop a specific strategy to revitalize the California
    economy; the United States Senators from California, Dianne Feinstein
    and Barbara Boxer; and your Congressman and the chairman of the House
    Armed Services Committee, Ron Dellums. I am glad to be here with all of
    them.
        To the distinguished military officers to my right and most of all
    to those of you who are here from the United States Navy, from the
    Marine Corps, the United States Army, and from the Coast Guard, it is an
    honor to be here with you in the shadow of this magnificent aircraft
    carrier, the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, and just off to my left here, a ship
    that I helped to launch, the U.S.S. Arkansas, back in a former life of
    mine. It's wonderful to see the ship again and to see the flag of my
    State and the flag of my country waving there.
        I come here, first of all and foremost, to thank all of you, those
    of you in uniform and those of you who have worked to support those in
    uniform, for being genuine patriots, for helping to win the cold war,
    for making a difference in the lives of all Americans and billions of
    people around the world. You have done the right thing by your country.
        As a result of that, it has become possible, indeed it has become
    necessary, to downsize the defense establishment of the United States
    and to, more importantly, reorganize so it can maintain its dominance in
    a world that is new and different but still quite dangerous and very
    much uncertain.
        The one thing we must never do is to lose the ability to recruit and
    maintain the best trained, the best educated, most highly motivated men
    and women in the Armed Forces in the entire world. The other thing we
    must never do is to lose our capacity to train them and to give them the
    finest, most technologically

    [[Page 1373]]

    advanced weaponry of offense and defense available in the world.
        In order to accomplish those tasks, it is inevitable that as we
    downsize defense, we must not only reduce the numbers of people coming
    into the Armed Forces, not only reduce some of the money we have been
    spending on weapons systems, we have to reduce the base structure of our
    Armed Forces. If we do not do it at an appropriate level, we will wind
    up underspending on the education and training and support systems for
    the men and women in the service, underspending on the important
    research and development and weaponry we must have in order to maintain
    our own national security and our capacity to lead the world.
        Nonetheless, when a base closing is announced, it means a difficult
    transition for the people in uniform and, very often, even more for the
    people in the community. I know that because I have been through a very
    traumatic one in my own State, when an Air Force base was closed in a
    community that had 15 percent unemployment when the closing was
    announced.
        I come here today not only to say what I have said about why these
    things are happening but also to talk about what we can do together to
    help all of you cope with this change and to help this place and all
    these people come out winners in the end.
        The wave of change that has washed over our shores has caused this
    shifting military structure. It has also opened up dramatic new
    opportunities in a global economy, if we have the vision and courage to
    seize those opportunities.
        One of the things that we have not done very well is to frankly face
    the future and to plan aggressively for change, to give every person in
    this country a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential even
    in the face of change. You heard Secretary Perry quoting President
    Kennedy, ``Those who think only of the past and the present will miss
    the future.'' That has happened. In a world that is changing as rapidly
    as ours is, people lose the opportunities they now have not just because
    of defense cutbacks but because of other changes in the global economy.
    It is absolutely critical if we are going to secure a better future for
    these young boys and girls that the Navy and the Marine Corps have
    helped to get off to a better start in life, to stay off drugs, in
    school, to be learners. We have got to learn to adapt to change and plan
    for it.
        Let us first say clearly what you already know. This base and others
    like it, announced in the last round of base closings, will not actually
    shut down for several years. But if we wait until then to plan what
    happens to the people in and out of uniform and to the resources here,
    we will absolutely ensure a period of economic dislocation that need not
    occur.
        Those of you in the military face the uncertainty of relocation.
    Others are wondering whether they will find a new job or what the future
    will bring. As I said, as Governor I went through this when we lost
    several thousand jobs in the Arkansas delta, which was the poorest area
    in the United States with the highest unemployment rate. I can report to
    you that if there is a good, aggressive partnership, good things can
    happen. There are hundreds of new and different and higher paying jobs
    in that community today because of what the local folks did working with
    the State and making the most of what we were given by the National
    Government. But I think we can do even better.
        I make this pledge to you. The men and women who won the cold war
    will not be left out in the cold by a grateful Nation. If we are smart,
    imaginative, and creative, if the Federal Government listens to people
    at the grassroots level and moves this vast national bureaucracy in the
    interests of the people rather than the priorities and the prerogatives
    of those who govern the bureaucratic levers, we can move forward.
        Nobody knows better what kind of future you can build than your own
    people. Just this morning, I found imaginative ideas in your local
    newspaper for urging the base to form closer ties to the growing
    economies of Asia. That's a good idea, the fastest growing region of the
    world.
        Our plan for reusing military bases is community centers. The vision
    for the future is up to you. Our job is to give you the tools to build a
    future, whether you are individual service men and women who deserve a
    right to a good relocation or, if you leave the service, an adequate
    opportunity to increase your skills, your income, and your future, or
    whether you're staying behind here in this community and you want to
    grow the economy and find opportunity.
        Last month, as Secretary Perry said, I announced a five-part, $5
    billion action plan to help to turn closing military bases into engines
    of economic opportunity. We will respond rap-

    [[Page 1374]]

    idly and spend money wisely. We will not just give speeches. We will
    act.
        Indeed, before I came here today I met with your local community
    commission devoted to revitalizing the economy of the area, and I
    listened to them. Presidents would do better if they spent more time
    listening to people at the grassroots levels. And that's one of the
    lessons I'm trying to learn and teach to Washington.
        When a base closes, henceforward our first priority will be to
    create jobs and promote economic development. Every one of the changes
    will be directed toward providing jobs for the people who live here and
    their neighbors. Believe it or not, putting jobs first is a change in
    Federal policy. Even though we have been downsizing the defense
    establishment since 1987, that has not been the priority until this
    administration passed a new policy.
        Right now, believe it or not, the law actually requires the
    Government to charge communities full price for a closed military base
    if it is used for job creation and economic development. But the
    Government can give away a military base if it's used for recreational
    purposes. Well, people who are out of work have too much time for
    recreation. Let's put people to work first and then provide for their
    recreation.
        Earlier today I met with this community commission representing you
    so well and announced an example of our jobs-first policy. For years the
    port of Oakland has been trying to lease 200 acres of Navy property at
    the Oakland Naval Supply Center so that it could expand. For years there
    was a stalemate. Today I announced that that property will be rented
    out, much of it for $1 a year. That will create hundreds of good jobs.
        To make the port a magnet for shipping and commerce we must deepen
    the channel. For years environmental concerns have slowed this process.
    I have directed the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA, and all other
    concerned agencies to get on with it and to act as quickly as possible
    to resolve the issues so that we can dredge the channel and bring more
    opportunity to the people who live here.
        Under the leadership of your Congressman, Ron Dellums, the people
    who formed the East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Commission, with
    whom I met this morning, are already planning for a better and a
    brighter and a much more different future. Our administration has
    already provided $70,000 to hire staff and start the work of this
    commission. Now we can say that we will provide up to $3.5 million to
    plan for the East Bay of tomorrow. And we will begin now. We will not
    wait until the dislocations occur.
        We've got to avoid the problems that others have faced in the past,
    problems that I faced when I was a Governor. Environmental cleanup is
    often dragged on for years. But my EPA Administrator, Carol Browner, has
    already met with this commission and has set firm deadlines for the
    cleanup. We've appointed local coordinators here in the East Bay to bust
    the bureaucracy, to slash through the redtape.
        The East Bay has the potential to be a magnet for technology, for
    aviation, for manufacturing. Alameda County is the home of some of the
    world's finest research laboratories, Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence
    Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley. We have a
    technology reinvestment project for defense conversion that is already
    drawing high-tech firms into partnerships with these institutions. If we
    succeed, this military axis could be transformed into a thriving, high-
    tech commercial hub, a high-tech gateway to Asia and beyond.
        Here at the Naval Air Station you already have a wealth of
    facilities that can be converted into commercial use: an aircraft
    painting facility that meets Federal and State pollution rules. Now they
    paint fighter jets. Why not commercial planes? You have a state-of-the-
    art hush room used to test jet engines. Why not private jet engines? If
    we use our imagination, our energy, our creativity, this naval base and
    those around it now serving our freedom can and will thrive in the
    pursuit of commercial excellence.
        In the technology reinvestment initiative, we have already received
    over 8,000 new proposals to put the American people to work in a
    peacetime economy, and almost 3,000 of them have come from the State of
    California alone. The future is out there waiting for us, if we have the
    courage and vision to seize it.
        Within 60 days after the Congress finalizes the base closing list,
    the Departments of Labor and Commerce will have a SWAT team on the
    ground here in Alameda, specialists whose marching orders will be to
    work with people, train them, counsel them, and help them find a future.
    When the time comes, we will put into place a reemployment center here
    on the base to help with everything from job training to resume writing,
    to create a new jobs data

    [[Page 1375]]

    base so that for the first time people can actually call on a computer
    and find all the jobs available in the near area. And they will make
    sure that you have access to as much training in high-tech fields as you
    need.

        I have directed the Navy to hold a special west coast conference
    here in the Bay area on October 26th and 27th to help community leaders
    plan for base reuse in their future. At that meeting there will be
    leaders from communities throughout the country which have already gone
    through base closures and have actually come out creating more jobs than
    they have lost. And they did it without the kind of support that we are
    now providing.

        None of these changes will be easy, but we only have one choice. We
    can make this work to help people, or let the future take its course. I
    think the choice is clear. The world of global competition which we now
    face requires us, in order to make our next century a great one, to put
    our economic house in order. That means we live in an economy where
    capital, money, is mobile--can fly all over the world in a second--where
    commerce is global. Our wealth depends more than anything else on the
    skills of our people and our ingenuity in working together and investing
    in areas of high return.

        That's why I fought so hard to get control of our economy again by
    the record deficit reduction package that the Congress passed last week.
    That's why I will propose a health care plan next month to provide
    affordable health care and security to all American families, because
    it's bad for business for us to spend 35 percent more on health care
    than any other nation in the world, insure 40 million fewer of our
    people than we would if we had any other system in the world, and
    constantly risk the security of millions of families and at the same
    time put our business in bad shape. In the private sector most American
    workers have given up their wage increases for the last several years
    just to hold on to their health benefits, and it will happen for 10 more
    years unless we have the courage to change the system. It's good for
    bringing the deficit budget down. It's good for the American economy.

        That's why I will fight for expanded trade opportunity, to secure by
    the end of the year a world trade agreement through the General
    Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that every analyst says will add hundreds
    of thousands of manufacturing jobs to America by the end of the decade,
    and why I can say today, finally, that we have concluded what I believe
    is a very successful negotiation with the Mexican Government on the
    North American Free Trade Agreement, one that will now guarantee that a
    port city like Oakland will be able to send ever-increasing quantities
    of American-made goods to sell in Mexico and beyond.

        I am pleased that the United States, Mexico, and Canada have reached
    this agreement and have done it in a way that for the first time ever in
    a trade agreement requires another nation, in this case Mexico, not to
    use lower environmental standards, not to use lower labor standards just
    to get jobs here at America's expense but to actually have mutual trade
    based on increasing environmental standards, increasing wages and
    incomes in Mexico, and fair trade between the two nations so that both
    of us can win, create more jobs, and build a better future. That's the
    kind of future we all need.

        My fellow Americans, I am determined not to let the American dream
    founder. What a tragedy it would be if the aftermath of winning the cold
    war were a legacy that we left millions of Americans who won that war
    out in the cold. What a tragedy it would be if because we did not have
    the discipline and will to change, we hung on to outmoded ways of doing
    things under the guise of being good to our men and women in uniform,
    and we wound up weakening our national security because we didn't have
    the money to invest in continued technology and training in support of
    the men and women in uniform.

        There is another and better way. And it is the way we are pursuing
    here. I do want this county, I do want these facilities, I do want this
    area to be a national model.

        On the surface you have paid an enormous price here. The largest
    impact of the last round of base closings came in the Bay area and in
    northern California. Everybody knows that. But if you look around you at
    the people, if you look around you at the resources, if you imagine the
    future toward which we are tending, if we do the right thing, it means a
    better future for our people. It means a brighter future for this area,
    and it means a stronger, stronger America.

        I thank you again for your service to your Nation. The best way we
    can demonstrate hon-

    [[Page 1376]]

    oring your patriotism is to take steps now that are aggressive, tough,
    unrelenting, and worthy of what you have done for your country. I will
    do my best to do just that.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. at Wharf 3 at the Alameda Naval
    Air Station. In his remarks, he referred to Rear Adm. Merrill W. Ruck,
    USN, Commander, Naval Base San Francisco; and Rear Adm. Steven R.
    Briggs, USN, Acting Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.