[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

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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-


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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

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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-


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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.