Proclamation 6017—United States Coast Guard Bicentennial

On August 4, 1790, the Congress authorized ten revenue cutters requested by Alexander Hamilton, the Nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, for the purpose of interdicting violators of U.S. customs laws. The vital seagoing service that began with those ten swift vessels lives on today in the form of the United States Coast Guard.

Today, the United States Coast Guard remains in the forefront of our Nation's fight against the importation of contraband by sea. Working in cooperation with other government agencies, it plays a crucial role in preventing illegal drugs from reaching the United States. By helping to keep drugs off America's streets, the Coast Guard is helping to save lives.

Saving lives is nothing new to the outstanding men and women of the United States Coast Guard. Through its search and rescue operations, vessel inspections, and boating safety programs, the Coast Guard protects both commercial and recreational boaters from the perils of the high seas and other navigable waters.

In addition to preventing personal injury and property damage on all U.S. waters, the Coast Guard has served as a leader in protecting those waters. It has helped to minimize damage to the marine environment from spills of oil and other hazardous substances, and it has safeguarded our Nation's ports, waterways, and marine facilities from vandalism and accidental harm.

The U.S. Coast Guard also conducts polar and domestic ice operations to support our national interests and facilitates marine transportation in domestic waters by maintaining short- and long-range aids to navigation -- including lighthouses, buoys, and loran stations.

This important Government agency, which has ably served the American people in war as well as peacetime, will observe its Bicentennial during the period of time beginning August 4, 1989, and ending August 4, 1990.

The Congress of the United States, by Senate Joint Resolution 126, has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation recognizing the 2 centuries of service by the United States Coast Guard and calling upon the Nation to share in the pride and satisfaction enjoyed by its dedicated members during the commemoration of this Bicentennial.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the period beginning August 4, 1989, and ending August 4, 1990, as a time to commemorate the Bicentennial of the United States Coast Guard. I invite the Governors of the States, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and America Samoa and the Mayor of the District of Columbia to provide for the observance of this commemoration.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth.

GEORGE BUSH