The United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties.
In March 2003, it was rolled into form part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The United States Customs Service had three major missions: collecting tariff revenue, protecting the U.S. economy from smuggling and illegal goods, and processing people and goods at ports of entry.
Read more about United States Customs Service: History, Examples of Illegal Items, Commissioners
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“The rising power of the United States in world affairs ... requires, not a more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and criticism.... Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve as cheerleaders for our side in the present world struggle but to help the largest possible number of people to see the realities of the changing and convulsive world in which American policy must operate.”
—James Reston (b. 1909)
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—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
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—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
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—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
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—Peregrine, Sir Worsthorne (b. 1923)