    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 17, 2000]
    [Pages 948-954]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Commencement Address at the United States Coast Guard Academy in
    New London, Connecticut
    May 17, 2000

        Thank you very much. Secretary Slater,
    Admiral Loy, Rear Admiral Teeson, Captain Dillon, Senator
    Dodd, distinguished members of the
    diplomatic corps, Dr. Haas, members of the
    faculty and staff, and honored guests--the friends, family, and members
    of the class of 2000.
        I want to begin by complimenting Cadet Christopher Burrus on what I thought was a remarkable speech showing
    the devotion to the Coast Guard and the country that every American can
    be proud of.
        I would also like to thank the family members who are here for
    standing behind these cadets for 4 years and for making it possible for
    them to be here.
        This is a highly appropriate place for me to give what is, for me, a
    very nostalgic address. It is the last speech I will ever give as
    President to a graduating class of one of our military service
    academies.
        This class came to Washington and marched in my second Inaugural
    Parade. I pledged to use this term to build a bridge to the 21st
    century. And in so many ways, the first class of the 21st century
    represents that bridge.
        I have been personally, deeply indebted to the Coast Guard because
    of the military aides I have had every year I've been President who are
    Coast Guard officers. The last one, Pat DeQuattro, class of '88, is here with me today. They have all been
    outstanding people, and it made me think more and more of the Coast
    Guard.
        You can be proud of the road you have traveled from Swab Summer to
    today. You've survived academic rigors, countless games of football and
    volleyball against officers, even golf balls and dog food in the
    wardroom. For those of you who, like me, are somewhat less literate in
    these matters, that is cadet-speak for hard-boiled eggs and corned beef
    hash. [Laughter]
        You have, as we have heard, done extraordinary volunteer work. You
    placed first among universities at one of America's most prestigious
    national science competitions. You engineered Solar Splash, the top-
    ranked solar-powered boat in the Nation this year. Four of your
    classmates were all-American athletes, and one of your classmates even
    found fame and fortune on ``The Price is Right.'' [Laughter]
        I can't help noting that you were also the first class in history to
    have an adviser who had a recurring role on ``Baywatch.'' [Laughter]
    Now, Eric Kowack chose to give up that difficult
    duty, come back, and teach classes on personal

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    finance for those of you who don't become TV stars. [Laughter]
        I have been told that your spirit as a class is so strong that this
    class received more letters from opposing class presidents complaining
    about heckling at soccer games than any other class in the history of
    this academy. [Laughter] It's really nice to know you feel bad about it.
    [Laughter] I don't know if any of you got in trouble for that, but
    pursuant to long-standing tradition, I hereby grant amnesty to all
    candidates marching tours or serving restrictions for such minor
    offenses.
        As the first Coast Guard class of the 21st century, you will face a
    new set of challenges to America's security, values, and interests,
    though your mission will be consistent with the long and storied history
    of America's defenders. The waters off this shore have seen a lot of
    that history.
        In the West Wing of the White House, just a few feet from the Oval
    Office, there's a painting of the first naval battle of the War of 1812
    that happened off the coast of New London. That day a British frigate
    called the Belvidera  was chased by five American warships. You might be
    interested to know that three of those ships were named the President,
    the United States, and the Congress. History tells us the President was
    the fastest ship. [Laughter] But unfortunately, the  Belvidera got away
    anyway, because at a crucial moment the President  suffered significant
    damage. We're not sure exactly what caused it, but I am curious to know
    where  Congress  was at the time. [Laughter]
        I ask you to compare that picture with the picture to be painted in
    these same waters this summer, when the  Eagle  leads ships from more
    than 60 nations, including our adversary in 1812, Great Britain, into
    New London Harbor, the biggest, broadest gathering of its kind in
    history, a strong symbol of the global age in which you will serve.
        It is a wonderful sign of these times that two of the cadets who
    graduate in this class today come from Russia and Bulgaria, nations that
    were our adversaries when they were in elementary school, and neither
    they nor we think twice about it. We know it's a good thing.
        Globalization is tearing down barriers and building new networks
    among nations and people. The process is accelerated by the fact that
    more than half the world's people live in democracies for the first time
    in history, and by the explosive advance in information technology that
    is changing the way we all do business, including the Coast Guard.
        Just for example, a mere decade ago a cadet assigned to a buoy
    tender had to go through an elaborate process to place the buoys. Three
    people would stand back-to-back, tracking horizontal sextant angles, and
    then comparing those readings to hand-drawn navigational grids--with a
    lot of yelling back and forth. Today, all that work is done instantly by
    satellites and computers through the Global Positioning System.
        The very openness of our borders and technology, however, also makes
    us vulnerable in new ways. The same technology that gave us GPS and the
    marvelous possibilities of the Internet also apparently empowered a
    student sitting in the Philippines to launch
    a computer virus that in just a few hours spread through more than 10
    million computers and caused billions of dollars in damage.
        The central reality of our time is that the advent of globalization
    and the revolution in information technology have magnified both the
    creative and the destructive potential of every individual, tribe, and
    nation on our planet.
        Now, most of us have a vision of the 21st century. It sees the
    triumph of peace, prosperity, and personal freedom through the power of
    the Internet, the spread of the democracy, the potential of science as
    embodied in the human genome project and the probing of the deepest
    mysteries of nature, from the dark holes of the universe to the dark
    floors of the ocean.
        But we must understand the other side of the coin, as well. The same
    technological advances are making the tools of destruction deadlier,
    cheaper, and more available, making us more vulnerable to problems that
    arise half a world away--to terror, to ethnic, racial, and religious
    conflicts, to weapons of mass destruction, drug trafficking, and other
    organized crime.
        Today, and for the foreseeable tomorrows, we, and especially you,
    will face a fateful struggle between the forces of integration and
    harmony and the forces of disintegration and chaos. The phenomenal
    explosion of technology can be a servant of either side or, ironically,
    both. Of course, our traditional security concerns have by no means
    vanished. Still we must manage our relationships with great and
    potentially great powers in ways that protect and advance our interests.
    We must continue to maintain strong alliances, to have the best trained,
    best equipped

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    military in the world, to be vigilant that regional conflicts do not
    threaten us.
        In this scenario, one of the biggest question marks of the 21st
    century is the path China will take. Will China emerge as a partner or
    an adversary? Will it be a society that is opening to the world and
    liberating to its people or controlling of its people and lashing out at
    the world?
        Next week the Congress and the United States will have a once-in-a-
    lifetime opportunity to influence that question in the right way. There
    are brave people in China today working for human rights and political
    freedom. There are brave people within the Government of China today
    willing to risk opening the Chinese economy, knowing that it will
    unleash forces of change they cannot control.
        For example, in a country of 1.3 billion people, 2 years ago there
    were just 2 million Internet users. Last year there were 9 million. This
    year there will be over 20 million. When over 100 million people in
    China can get on the net, it will be impossible to maintain a closed
    political and economic society.
        If Congress votes to normalize trade relations with China, it will
    not guarantee that China will take the right course. But it will
    certainly increase the likelihood that it will. If Congress votes no, it
    will strengthen the hand, ironically, of the very people the opponents
    of this agreement claim to fight. It will strengthen the hands of the
    reactionary elements in the military and the state-owned industries who
    want America for an opponent, to justify their continued control and
    adherence to the old ways and repression of personal freedom.
        I believe that a no vote invites a future of dangerous
    confrontations and constant insecurity. It also, by the way, forfeits
    the largest market in the world for our goods and services and gives
    Europe and Japan all those benefits we negotiated to bring American jobs
    here at home.
        Granting China permanent normal trading relations, it's clearly in
    our economic interests. But from your point of view, even more
    important, it is a national security issue for stability in Asia, peace
    in the Taiwan Straits, possible cooperation with China to advance
    freedom and human rights within the country and to retard the
    proliferation of dangerous weapons technology beyond it. It is
    profoundly important to America's continued leadership in the world.
    That's why all former Presidents, without regard to party, as well as
    former Secretaries of State, Defense, Transportation, Trade, National
    Security Advisers, Chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, support this
    legislation.
        It illustrates a larger issue I want you to think about today, which
    is the importance of a balanced security strategy with military,
    diplomatic, and economic elements. I have worked hard to adapt our
    security strategy to the 21st century world, with all its possibilities
    and threats. Last year, as part of that effort, I asked the task force
    to conduct a fresh look at the roles and missions of the Coast Guard:
    What are you going to do in this new world anyway? The task force found
    that a flexible, highly motivated Coast Guard continues to be vital to
    our security.
        We often see, personally, our reliance on the Coast Guard during
    floods in North Carolina, after Hurricane Floyd, after the tragedies of
    EgyptAir and Air Alaska. Today, in the average week, you and your fellow
    coasties will seize more than $60 million worth of dangerous drugs,
    board 630 vessels for safety checks, intercept hundreds of illegal
    immigrants, investigate 119 marine accidents, respond to more than 260
    hazardous chemical spills, assist more than 2,500 people in distress,
    and save 100 lives. And the more we travel and the more we are connected
    together, the more those responsibilities and opportunities for service
    will rise.
        So your class will play an even larger role in defending and
    advancing America's security. It is very important to me, as the
    Commander in Chief, that each and every one of you understand the
    threats we face and what we should do to meet them.
        First, international terrorism is not new, but it is becoming
    increasingly sophisticated. Terrorist networks communicate on the World
    Wide Web, too. Available weapons are becoming more destructive and more
    miniaturized, just as the size of cell phones and computers is
    shrinking--shrinking to the point where a lot of you with large hands
    like mine wonder if you'll be able to work the things before long. You
    should understand that the same process of miniaturization will find its
    way into the development of biological and chemical and maybe even
    nuclear weapons. And it is something we have to be ready for.
        As borders fade and old regimes struggle through transitions, the
    chance for free agents

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    looking to make a profit on weapons of destruction and personal chaos is
    greater. In this sort of environment, cooperation is profoundly
    important--more vital than ever. We learned that in the days leading up
    to the millennium.
        We are joined today by the Ambassador from Jordan to the United
    States, Dr. Marwan Muasher. He's sitting here
    behind me. He's an excellent representative of his country. And I want
    to tell you a story that, unfortunately, will not be the last example
    you will have to face.
        Last December, working with Jordan, we shut down a plot to place
    large bombs at locations where Americans might gather on New Year's Eve.
    We learned this plot was linked to terrorist camps in Afghanistan and
    the organization created by Usama bin Ladin,
    the man responsible for the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Tanzania
    and Kenya, which cost the lives of Americans and hundreds of Africans.
        A short time later, a customs agent in Seattle discovered bomb
    materials being smuggled in to the U.S., the same materials used by bin
    Ladin in other places. Thankfully, and thanks to Jordan, New Year's
    passed without an attack. But the threat was real, and we had to
    cooperate with them, with the Canadians, with others throughout the
    world.
        So the first point I wish to make is, in a globalized world, we must
    have more security cooperation, not less. In responding to terrorist
    threats, our own strategy should be identical to your motto:  Semper
    paratus--always ready.
        Today I'm adding over $300 million to fund critical programs to
    protect our citizens from terrorist threats, to expand our intelligence
    efforts, to improve our ability to use forensic evidence, to track
    terrorists, to enhance our coordination with State and local officials,
    as we did over New Year's, to protect our Nation against possible
    attacks. I have requested now some $9 billion for counterterrorism
    funding in the 2001 budget. That's 40 percent more than 3 years ago, and
    this $300 million will go on top of that. It sounds like a lot of money.
    When you see the evidence of what we're up against, I think you will
    support it, and I hope you will.
        We also have to do all we can to protect existing nuclear weapons
    from finding new owners. To keep nuclear weapons and nuclear materials
    secure at the source, we've helped Russia to deactivate about 5,000
    warheads, to strengthen border controls and keep weapons expertise from
    spreading. But Russia's economic difficulties have made this an even
    greater challenge.
        Just for example, I know you know that when you decided to become a
    Coast Guard officer, you made a decision that you would not be wealthy.
    But let me give you some basis of comparison. The average salary today
    of a highly trained weapons scientist in Russia is less than $100 a
    month. Needless to say, there are a lot of people who'd like to develop
    nuclear weapons capability who are out there trying to hire those folks.
        The programs that we fund in joint endeavors to secure the Russian
    nuclear force and the materials and to do other kinds of joint research
    help to give such scientists a decent living to support their families.
    And I think we have to do even more to help them turn their expertise to
    peaceful projects. We shouldn't just depend upon their character to
    resist the temptation to earn a living wage with all of their knowledge
    and education. And we have asked Congress for extra funding here to help
    Russia keep its arsenal of nuclear weapons secure.
        Still, we have to face the possibility that a hostile nation, sooner
    or later, may well acquire weapons of mass destruction and the missiles
    necessary to deliver them to our shores. That's what this whole debate
    over whether we should have a limited national missile defense is all
    about. Later this year, I will decide whether we should begin to deploy
    it next spring, based on four factors that I will have to take into
    account.
        First, has this technology really proved it will work? Second, what
    does it cost, and how do we balance that cost against our other defense
    priorities? Third, how far advanced is the threat; how likely is it that
    another nation could deliver long-range ballistic missiles to our shore
    within 3 years, 5 years, 10 years--what is the time frame? And finally,
    what impact will it have on our overall security, including our arms
    control efforts in other areas, our relationships with our allies in
    other countries around the world?
        I also want you to know, as I said earlier, we've got to be ready
    for the prospect of biological and chemical warfare. We saw that in the
    sarin gas attack in Japan 4 years ago. We've established a national
    defense preparedness office to train first responders, using new
    technology to improve our ability to detect these agents quickly. And
    we're doing all we can to

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    see that poison gas and biological weapons are, in fact, eliminated from
    the face of the Earth.
        We have to do the same when it comes to problems in cybersecurity.
    Today, critical systems like power structures, nuclear plants, air
    traffic control, computer networks, they're all connected and run by
    computers. Two years ago we had an amazing experience in America and
    around the world. We saw that a single failed electronics link with one
    satellite malfunction disable pagers, ATM's, credit card systems, and TV
    and radio networks all over the world. That was an accident. The ``love
    bug'' was not an accident.
        So to protect America from cybercrime and cyberterrorism, we have
    developed a national plan for cybersecurity, with both public and
    private sector brains putting it together. We're asking for increased
    funding to implement this plan to protect our vital networks. That's
    something else I hope you will support.
        We talk about computer viruses and often forget the world is also
    threatened by physical infection like malaria, TB, and AIDS. Some people
    questioned me when our administration announced a couple of weeks ago
    that we considered the AIDS crisis a national security threat. But let
    me just give you a couple of examples.
        In Africa alone, there are 70 percent of the world's AIDS cases. The
    fastest growing rate of AIDS is in India, which happens to be a nuclear
    power. In Africa, some countries are actually hiring two employees for
    every job, on the assumption that one of them is going to die from AIDS.
    In other African countries, 30 percent of the teachers and 40 percent of
    the soldiers have the virus.
        In addition, millions of people suffer from malaria, and about a
    third of the world has been exposed to TB, a disease that can reach our
    shores at the speed of jet travel. With malaria, people now discuss in
    common parlance airport malaria, something people can get at any
    international airport in any country in the world because we're all
    traveling around and bumping into people from other countries.
        These diseases can ruin economies and threaten the very survival of
    nations and societies. I think meeting this public health challenge is a
    moral imperative and a national security concern.
        I issued an Executive order last week to help make AIDS drugs more
    affordable to people in poor countries. I propose that we give a
    generous tax credit to our private pharmaceutical companies to give them
    an incentive to develop vaccines for things like AIDS, malaria, and TB,
    because the people who need it most can't afford to pay for it. If we
    help them pay for it, we can save millions of lives and strengthen our
    security. If we don't, we will dramatically increase the chances of
    chaos, murder, the abuse of children, the kind of things we have seen in
    some of the terrible tribal wars in Africa in the last couple of years.
        Finally, there's one more global challenge I want you to think about
    that I think is a security challenge, the challenge of climate change.
    Nine of the 10 warmest years since the 15th century were recorded in the
    1990's--9 of the 10 warmest years since the 15th century. Unless we
    change course and reverse global greenhouse gas emissions, most
    scientists are convinced that storms and droughts will intensify as the
    globe continues to warm. Crop patterns will be disrupted. Food supplies
    will be affected. The seas will rise so high they will swallow islands
    and coastal areas, and if that happens, all the Luders training in the
    world won't save us. [Laughter]
        I want you to laugh, but I want you to listen. This is a huge
    challenge that can become a national security challenge. If we value our
    coastlands and farmlands, we must work at home. If we value the
    stability of our neighbors and friends and the rights of people around
    the world, particularly in island nations, to live their lives in peace
    according to their cultures and religious faiths, we must work with
    other nations. This is a global challenge. And the good news is, we
    don't need to put more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere anymore to
    grow the economy. All we need is the vision and will and discipline to
    do the job.
        Finally, we have to deal with the global challenge of
    narcotrafficking and drugs. We have to do a lot here at home, zero
    tolerance for drug use, treatment for those who suffer, punishment for
    those who profit. But we also have to fight these big drug cartels and
    the criminal empires they finance. Ninety percent of the cocaine
    consumed in America, two-thirds of the heroin seized on our streets
    comes from or through just one country, Colombia.
        Now, Colombia has a courageous new President, Andres
    Pastrana, who has asked for our help to
    finance his comprehensive Plan Colombia to fight drugs, build the
    economy, and deepen democracy. I've asked Congress to give $1.6

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    billion to pay our share of Plan Colombia over the next 2 years. The
    House just passed a bill; I hope the Senate will do so as soon as
    possible. It is a national security issue. For Colombia, Latin America's
    oldest democracy, is not just fighting for its peoples' lives and its
    way of life; it's fighting to preserve stability in the entire Andean
    region, and it's fighting for the lives of our kids, too.
        So again, it's not in the Department of Defense budget in a direct
    way, or in the Department of Transportation budget in a direct way, but
    it directly affects our national security, and I hope you will support
    it.
        In all these challenges, the Coast Guard will play a vital role. You
    always have. In the 18th century, the predecessor to today's Coast Guard
    manned antislavery patrols and coordinated tariff collection for a young
    nation. In the 19th century, you assumed responsibility for search and
    rescue, marine inspection, and quarantine laws. In the last century, the
    20th century, you arrested rumrunners during Prohibition, enforced
    environmental laws, interdicted drugs, and even delivered marines to the
    beaches at Normandy.
        We're trying to make sure you can do your job in the 21st century.
    My 2001 budget requests another $376 million for the Coast Guard, the
    largest one-year increase in 20 years, including a 34 percent increase
    to buy ships. I will also recommend to the next President that America
    continue to support the Coast Guard's Deep Water Project, so you have
    the ships and planes you need to meet challenges that face us. We can't
    meet threats to the future with a Coast Guard fleet from the past.
        Let me say just this last point. We cannot accept the fact that the
    burden of protecting America's security falls solely on the shoulders of
    those who stand watch on our borders and coastlines, on the high seas or
    our allies' home ground, that it involves only immediate threats to our
    security.
        Ever since the end of the cold war, some people have been saying,
    ``We don't need to play such an active role in the world anymore or
    worry about distant conflicts or play our part in international
    institutions like the United Nations.'' I want to ask you what you think
    the alternative is: a survivalist foreign policy, build a fence around
    America and retreat behind it; a go-it-alone foreign policy, where we do
    it our way, and if people disagree with us, we just don't do it at all?
    I profoundly disagree with both.
        Remember the story I told you about the millennium and the help we
    got from Jordan and the work we did with Canada. It wouldn't have
    mattered what we had done; if they hadn't helped us, we'd have had bombs
    going off here as we celebrated the millennium. We have got to be more
    involved in a cooperative way with other nations to advance our national
    security.
        America has been called a shining city on a hill. That doesn't mean
    our oceans are moats. It doesn't mean our country is a fortress. If we
    wait to act until problems come home to America, problems are far more
    likely to come home to America. I hope when you leave here today as new
    officers, you will be convinced that more than any previous time in
    history, your Nation must be engaged in the world, paying our fair
    share, doing our fair share, working with others to secure peace and
    prosperity where we can, leading where we must, and standing up for what
    we believe.
        That's why I support the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. I
    hope the Congress will ratify it next year. That's why I've worked to
    relieve the debts of the poorest nations of the world and to help them
    build their economies and their educational systems; why we have worked
    to expand trade with Africa and the poor Caribbean nations, to deepen
    our economic ties to Latin American and Asia; why we work for peace in
    the Middle East and Northern Ireland, for democracy in Haiti, and an end
    to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo; for reconciliation between
    North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus.
    They may be a long way from home, but more and more, as the years go by,
    you will see that in an age of globalism, our values and interests are
    at stake in these places, as well.
        Almost 40 years ago, President Kennedy stood on the deck of the
    Eagle,  and that day he said this: ``There is not a single person who
    has sailed any of our lakes or oceans who has not at one time or another
    been the beneficiary of the faithful service of the Coast Guard.''
        Today, that great tradition falls to you in the greatest age of
    possibility in human history. You are the generation chosen by
    providence to lead the Coast Guard into the new century. Your class
    motto says,  Ducentes viam en millennium--leading the way into the new
    millennium. Now you have the preparation to do it. You clearly

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    have the courage and character to do it. I pray you will also have the
    vision and wisdom to take your motto and truly make it your own.
        Good luck. Thank you for your service, and God bless you.

     Note:  The President spoke at 11:40 a.m. at Cadet Memorial Field. In
    his remarks, he referred to Adm. James M. Loy, USCG, Commandant of the
    Coast Guard; Rear Adm. Douglas Teeson, USCG, Superintendent, and Capt.
    Thomas J. Haas, USCG (Ret.), Dean of Academics and Supervisory
    Professor, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Capt. William P. Dillon, Chaplain
    Corps, USN, who delivered the invocation; Cadet First Class Christopher
    Burrus, who delivered the valedictorian address; and Onel de Guzman, who
    allegedly unleashed the ``love bug'' computer virus. The Executive order
    of May 10 on access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals and medical technologies
    is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.