    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 22, 1996]
    [Pages 787-792]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the United States Coast Guard Academy Commencement in New
    London, Connecticut
    May 22, 1996

        Thank you very much. Secretary Pena, Commandant Kramek--thank you
    for doing such an excellent job, Admiral,--Admiral Versaw, Commander
    Wiemer. To the United States Coast Guard Band, thank you today. To the
    members of this fine class, your families, and your friends, this is
    your day, and I am deeply honored to share it with you.
        I am especially indebted to the Coast Guard right now because there
    are four members of the White House Staff who are Coast Guard officers.
    Three of them are graduates of this Academy: Commander Peter Boynton,
    Lieutenant Matt Miller, Lieutenant Commander Bob Malkowski. The fourth
    is not a graduate of this Academy, but she is my Coast Guard military
    aide, and I'm very proud of her: Lieutenant Commander June Ryan. And she
    informed me that every Coast Guard officer was a supporter of this
    Academy. I am delighted to be here with all of you.
        I must say I only had one pause when I was invited to be your
    commencement speaker, and that's when I heard that the mascot for the
    Class of '96 is the guinea pig. [Laughter] Having been in that position
    more than once in my life, I was not particularly anxious to take on
    another one. [Laughter] But then I remembered what a wonderful reception
    that the ``coasties'' gave the First Lady and our daughter, Chelsea,
    when they visited here 2 years ago. And I told the pilot to go on and
    hold course for New London.
        I am honored to be here today. God has given us a beautiful day, and
    I hope you all enjoy it and remember it fondly for the rest of your
    lives.
        We gather before the Coast Guard cutter Eagle, the largest tall ship
    flying the Stars and Stripes. On its decks and its riggings, you cadets
    were tested time and again to ready you for the important
    responsibilities you are about to assume as Coast Guard officers. I can
    look at you and tell that you are ready.
        The course you're on will not always be easy, but it will be
    exhilarating because you are serving at a time of extraordinary
    challenge and change, a time of new risks to our security but also real
    opportunities to make the future brighter for every American, especially
    the Americans of your generation and the generations to come.
        You will know this by the virtue of the work you will be doing week-
    in and week-out, along

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    the 47,000 miles of America's coastline, lakes, and rivers, from the
    frigid waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic to the balmy
    Caribbean, and far from home patrolling the Baltic, the Mediterranean,
    and the Black Sea with our allies.
        Consider the average Coast Guard week--something I hope the American
    people will get to do as a result of this appearance. Most of your
    fellow citizens have no idea the sweep, the scope, the importance of the
    work you do. But in the average week, you and your fellow sailors will
    seize drugs with a street value of $50 million, stop hundreds of illegal
    immigrants from reaching our shores, respond to 260 hazardous chemical
    spills, salvage property worth $17 million, conduct 1,250 search and
    rescue missions, and save the lives of nearly 100 people. That's an
    average week. That's a pretty good average, and the American people
    should be very, very proud of the United States Coast Guard.
        But since you're facing such a heavy load in the future, I think I
    should lighten it for now. So as Commander in Chief, I hereby grant
    amnesty to all cadets marching tours or serving restrictions for minor
    offenses. [Laughter]
        To the members of this graduating class, from this day forward you
    will be guardians of America's security. There is no higher calling. And
    so as you celebrate today, I ask you just to take a few moments with me
    to join in thinking about the future that you will help to shape for
    your fellow Americans and for the citizens of the world. What do you
    want the future to look like? What do we want the future to look like?
    How do we want America to enter the 21st century?
        Four years ago, I said that the answer to that question for me is as
    straightforward as the path ahead is full of twists and turns. For me,
    America must enter the 21st century as a nation of opportunity for all
    and responsibility from all, a nation that is coming together, instead
    of drifting apart, a nation that remains the strongest force on Earth
    for peace, freedom and prosperity.
        For nearly 4 years our administration has pursued that vision with a
    strategy that involves making American people more secure, by leading a
    powerful movement now sweeping the globe for democracy and peace, by
    creating greater prosperity for our people, by opening markets abroad.
        And that strategy is working. Our military is stronger, our
    alliances are deeper, the danger of weapons of mass destruction and the
    other major threats to our security are receding. Conflicts long thought
    to be unsolvable are moving toward resolution. More markets than ever
    before are open to our goods and services. And more markets than ever
    before are open to the goods and services of other nations as well.
        The mission before you is to build on these achievements at a time
    when the world we live in is going through profound and fast-paced
    change, perhaps the fastest pace of change in all human history. In so
    many ways this change is clearly for the good, and you have been a part
    of it. Democracy and free markets are on the march. The laptops, the CD-
    ROM's, the satellites that are second nature to all of you, send ideas,
    products, money, all across our planet in a matter of seconds.
    Political, economic, and technological revolutions are bringing us all
    closer together and bringing with them extraordinary opportunities for
    all to share in humanity's genius for progress.
        But we know these same forces also pose new challenges. The end of
    communism has opened the door to the spread of weapons of mass
    destruction and lifted the lid on religious and ethnic conflicts. The
    growing openness we so cherish also benefits a host of equal opportunity
    destroyers: terrorists, international criminals, drug traffickers, and
    those who do environment damage that cross national borders.
        None of these problems has any particular respect for the borders of
    the nation you are sworn to defend. Because the cold war is over, some
    of these challenges are underestimated, and Americans that typically
    don't have much in common from the left to the right find themselves
    saying it is now time for us to retreat from our global leadership role.
        But we cannot withdraw into a fortress America. There is no wall
    high enough to keep out the threats to our security or to isolate
    ourselves from the world economy and other trends in the global society.
    There are some who say we should lead, all right, but they would deny us
    the resources to do so. To them I also ask, reconsider your position.
        One of the most important lessons of the last 50 years is that
    democracy and free markets are neither inevitable nor irreversible. They
    need our support, the power of our example, the resolve of our
    leadership. My job as Presi-

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    dent is to match the need for American leadership to our interests and
    to our values, to act where we can make a difference, to do so wisely,
    not reflexively, relying on diplomacy and sanctions when we can, force
    when we must, working with our allies whenever possible but alone when
    necessary, rejecting the call to isolationism, refusing to be the
    world's policeman.
        It also means, as the Secretary said earlier, form time to time
    making some decisions that are unpopular in the short run. But if you
    consider some of those, imagine the alternative. Imagine what the
    Persian Gulf would look like today if the United States had not stepped
    up with our allies in Desert Storm. Then 2 years ago, we had to do it
    again to stop Iraqi aggression. Imagine the ongoing reign of terror and
    the flood of refugees to our shore had we not backed diplomacy with
    force in Haiti. And by the way, you ought to be proud that it was a
    Coast Guard cutter that led our forces into Port-au-Prince Harbor on
    that mission.
        Imagine the shells and the slaughter we would still be seeing in
    Bosnia had we not brought our force to bear through NATO. Imagine the
    chaos that might have ensued had we not used our economic power to
    stabilize Mexico's economy. Imagine the jobs we would have lost if we
    hadn't taken the lead to expand world trade through GATT and NAFTA and
    over 200 specific agreements. In each case there was substantial,
    sometimes overwhelming, opinion against America's course. But because we
    followed the course, Americans are better off.
        For all the new demands on our troops and our treasure, the basic
    tools of leadership still require a powerful military and strong
    alliances. Those things allowed us to triumph through two world wars and
    a cold war. And for this new era, we must first sharpen and strengthen
    these tools. Our military has never been more ready than it is today,
    prepared to fight and win on two major fronts at once, to deter
    aggression and to defeat it.
        Because of our military strength, we can often achieve our
    objectives by ourselves or with our allies without a fight. In the last
    couple of years, that's why Saddam Hussein pulled his forces back from
    Kuwait's border, why the military dictators stepped down in Haiti, and
    why, after a bombing but not a ground campaign, the Bosnian Serbs turned
    from the battlefield to the bargaining table. We still have the best
    trained, best equipped, best prepared fighting force in the world. It is
    being strengthened every day. It is also strengthened by strong
    alliances and cooperative action with like-minded nations.
        As we saw in the Gulf war, in Haiti, and now in Bosnia, there are a
    lot of other countries who share our goals and who are willing to share
    our burdens, through NATO, the United Nations, and other coalitions. The
    end of the cold war presented us with an historic opportunity to broaden
    our alliances, to build a peaceful and undivided Europe, to forge a
    stable community of nations in an increasingly open and democratic Asia,
    to draw our own hemisphere closer together in a shared embrace of
    democracy and free enterprise. We have seized those opportunities.
        In Europe we have reinforced our ties with our longtime friends and
    opened NATO's doors to new democracies, beginning with the Partnership
    For Peace. We have worked to support Russia's transition to democracy
    and a free market economy. Another national election will soon be held
    there. More than 60 percent of Russia's economy has moved from the heavy
    grip of the state into the hands of its people. The cooperation between
    our troops in Bosnia proves that we can have a strong partnership with
    Russia and with Europe. The main battleground for the bloodiest century
    in history, Europe, is finally coming together in peace.
        We also have vital strategic and economic interests in Asia, the
    fastest growing part of the world economically. They require new efforts
    to maintain stability. I recently returned from a trip to Korea and
    Japan, reaffirming our security relationship with Japan, launching a new
    initiative to make peace on the Korean Peninsula, committing to maintain
    100,000 troops in North Asia, and reaffirming our determination to
    engage China in developing a productive security dialog.
        These are the things that you will have to carry out. By living up
    to the legacy of American leadership, being steady and strong in the
    judgments necessary to advance our interests and our values, keeping our
    military ready, deepening our alliances, we will meet the challenges of
    your time.
        But there is more to be done for America to keep moving forward and
    to pass on an even safer and more prosperous world to our children as we
    enter this new century and a new millennium. First, we must continue to
    seize the ex-

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    traordinary opportunity to reduce the threat of weapons of mass
    destruction. We have set the most far-reaching arms control and
    nonproliferation agenda in history, and I am determined to pursue it and
    complete it. Already, there are no Russian missiles pointed at our
    cities or our citizens. We are cutting our arsenals by two-thirds from
    their cold war height. Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazahkstan have been
    convinced to give up their nuclear weapons.
        Our diplomacy backed with force persuaded North Korea to freeze its
    nuclear program. We have now secured the indefinite and unconditional
    extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Sometimes I wonder if
    people know what that is. Now, I know you do. [Laughter] I wish I could
    give you a citation. [Laughter]
        But we have other things to do. We must continue to help people who
    will work with us to safeguard nuclear materials and destroy those
    nuclear weapons so they don't wind up in the wrong hands. We have got to
    stop an entire new generation of nuclear weapons by signing a
    comprehensive test ban treaty this year. We have to ban chemical weapons
    by ratifying the chemical weapons convention now.
        All of these things are focused on reducing the threat of weapons of
    mass destruction. But we also have to be prepared to defend ourselves in
    the extremely unlikely event that these preventive measures fail. That's
    why we're spending $3 billion a year on a strong, sensible, national
    missile defense program based on real threats and pragmatic responses.
    Our first priority is to defend against existing or near-term threats,
    like short- and medium-range missile attacks on our troops in the field
    or our allies. And we are, with upgraded Patriot missiles, the Navy
    Lower and Upper Tier and the Army THAAD.
        The possibility of a long-range missile attack on American soil by a
    rogue state is more than a decade away. To prevent it, we are committed
    to developing by the year 2000 a defensive system that could be deployed
    by 2003, well before the threat becomes real.
        I know that there are those who disagree with this policy. They have
    a plan that Congress will take up this week that would force us to
    choose now a costly missile defense system that could be obsolete
    tomorrow. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this cost will
    be between $30 and $60 billion.
        Those who want us to deploy this system before we know the details
    and the dimensions of the threat we face, I believe, are wrong. I think
    we should not leap before we look. I believe this plan is misguided. It
    would waste money. It would weaken our defenses by taking money away
    from things we know we need right now. It would violate the arms control
    agreements that we have made, and these agreements make us more secure.
    That is the wrong way to defend America.
        The right way to defend America includes eliminating weapons of mass
    destruction, stopping their spread, and building a smart missile defense
    system. It also includes continuing the fight against the increasingly
    interconnected forces of destruction like terrorism, organized crime,
    and drug trafficking.
        Believe me, no one is immune to their danger, and you will see them
    more in your career, not the people of Tokyo where the sarin gas attack
    in the subway injured thousands of commuters, the people of Latin
    America or Southeast Asia where drug traffickers wielding imported
    weapons have murdered hundreds of innocent people, not the people of
    Israel where hatemongers have blown up buses full of children, nor the
    people of the former Soviet Union and Central Europe where organized
    criminals are undermining new democracies, and of course, not the people
    of our United States, where homegrown terrorists blew up the Murrah
    Federal Building in the heart of America and foreign terrorists tried to
    topple the World Trade Center, where drug traffickers poison our
    children and bring untold violence to our streets.
        As Coast Guard officers, you will be on the frontlines of this
    struggle against these forces of destruction, especially drugs. With
    every seizure, like last summer's record haul of 12 tons of cocaine from
    a Panamanian fishing vessel, you are literally saving the lives of
    American citizens. Today I pledge this to you: With our military and law
    enforcement agencies, you will have the tools you need to get the job
    done.
        We must cooperate as never before with countries around the world,
    sharing information, providing military support, pursuing anticorruption
    efforts, shutting down front companies and money laundering operations,
    opening more FBI training centers. We have to keep up the funding, the
    personnel, the training for our law enforcement agencies. We have to
    keep the heat on states that sponsor terrorism or violate international
    law with tough sanctions like

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    the one the international community has imposed on Iraq since the Gulf
    war.
        And I'd like to take this occasion to congratulate the Coast Guard,
    which recently completed its 10,000th boarding in the Persian Gulf in
    support of those sanctions. Thank you, and congratulations.
        Since the forces of destruction never give up, we must never give
    in. And your job will be to help America remain vigilant and victorious.
    We also have to continue to advance the fight for peace and democracy
    faster than before. Nothing can strengthen our security more in the long
    run. When people are free and at peace, they are less likely to resort
    to violence or to abuse the rights of their fellow citizens. They are
    more likely to join with us in common cause.
        We see this so clearly here in our own hemisphere where the powerful
    movement to democracy has produced unparalleled cooperation in dealing
    with drugs and illegal immigrants and has brought freedom to every
    single country in our hemisphere but one.
        We see the promise of peace in Northern Ireland where negotiations
    are set to begin next month. We see it in the Middle East where a
    comprehensive, lasting settlement is within reach. In the last 3 years
    alone, Israel and its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbors have committed
    to peace, and they're making good on their commitments, including just a
    few weeks ago, Chairman Arafat fulfilling his pledge to rid the
    Palestinian Charter of all references to the destruction of Israel.
        We know that many difficult issues remain to be resolved between
    Israel and Syria, between Israel and Lebanon. We know there will be
    problems from time to time, as there was in the tragic fighting along
    the border between Israel and Lebanon, which I am grateful has been
    resolved now. We know that, most importantly, every step along the path
    to peace, the enemies of peace will show their own desperation with
    bullets and bombs.
        So I say this to the people of Israel: We've been with you every
    step of the way for the last 3 years. As Israel takes further risks for
    peace in the future, it can count on further manifestations of American
    support. We must be with you every step of the way until there is a
    comprehensive, lasting peace in the Middle East. Now is not the time to
    turn back, and the United States must do its part.
        Finally, we must never forget that the true measure of our country's
    well-being and our security not only includes physical safety but
    economic prosperity as well. Decades from now, people will look back at
    this period and see the most far-reaching changes in the world trading
    system in 50 years, since the end of World War II. Changes that are
    making a dramatic difference in the lives of ordinary people through the
    negotiations that produced the GATT and NAFTA agreements, through the
    persuasion we had in working with Japan on 21 separate agreements.
    Barriers to our products have come down, and our exports have gone up,
    creating more than one million new jobs in the last 3 years alone.
        We still have a lot of to do in the Asia-Pacific region and in other
    areas of the world. We have to extend free and fair trade on every
    continent. We have the best workers and the best products in the world.
    If we give them a fair deal with free trade, they will bring even
    greater prosperity home to America.
        Members of the class of 1996, I want to leave you with this one
    final thought as you go forward. This new era calls on all of us to rise
    to more different and difficult challenges than in the past. I know the
    rewards of serving on the frontlines of change may seem distant and
    uncertain from time to time, but you will succeed if you remember always
    to measure your success by one simple standard: Have you made the lives
    of the American people safer? Have you made the future of our children
    more secure? That must remain our guiding principle for the years ahead.
        If it does, we will enter the 21st century with a military whose
    fighting edge is sharper than ever; with a peaceful, undivided Europe
    and a stable, prosperous Asia; with fewer nuclear weapons in the world's
    arsenals and tough new agreements to control chemical and biological
    weapons; with terrorists, organized criminals, and drug traffickers on
    the run, not on the rampage; with more barriers to American products
    coming down; with more people than ever living with the blessings of
    peace and democracy.
        For 50 years now, our country has been the world's leading force for
    freedom and progress around the world, and it has brought us real
    security and prosperity here at home. If we continue to lead, if we
    continue to meet the peril and seize the promise of this new era, that

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    proud history will also be your future and the future of your children.
        Good luck, and God bless you and God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:34 a.m. at Nelson W. Nirchman Field. In
    his remarks, he referred to Adm. Robert Kramek, Commandant, U.S. Coast
    Guard; Rear Adm. Paul E. Versaw, Superintendent, U.S. Coast Guard
    Academy; Commander R.O. Bill Wiemer, who gave the invocation; and
    Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority.