[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

[[Page 2037]]

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

[[Page 2038]]

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.