[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[April 23, 1999]
[Pages 606-607]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization Commemorative Ceremony
April 23, 1999
Mr. Secretary General, leaders of NATO,
other distinguished foreign guests, my fellow Americans. It is a
profound honor for the United States to welcome NATO back to Washington
for its 50th anniversary, an occasion to honor NATO's past, to reaffirm
its present mission in Kosovo, to envision its future.
In 1949, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, the American
novelist William Faulkner acknowledged the fear of nuclear holocaust
that then gripped the world. But he declared firmly that humanity will
not merely endure, it will prevail. In that same year, 12 nations came
here to pledge to vindicate that faith. They were North Americans and
Europeans determined to build a new Europe on the ruins of the old
through a mutual commitment to each other's security and freedom.
In this auditorium, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman,
said that NATO's fundamental aim was not to win a war that would, after
all, leave Europe ravaged but to avoid such a war, and I quote, ``by
becoming, together, strong enough to safeguard the peace.'' He was
right. No member of NATO has ever been called upon to fire a shot in
anger to defend an ally from attack.
The American Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, said that NATO would
``free the minds of men in many nations from a haunting sense of
insecurity and enable them to work and plan with confidence in the
future.'' And he was right. NATO bought time for the Marshall plan. It
encouraged allies to pool their military and economic strength, instead
of pitting it against their neighbors.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson, predicted that the
NATO Pact's achievement would ``extend beyond the time of emergency
which gave it birth, or the geographical area which it now includes.''
And he, too, was right. NATO gave hope to West Germany and confidence to
Greece and Turkey. Ultimately, NATO helped break the grip of the cold
war. Yesterday, Europe divided by an arbitrary line: on one side, free
people living in fear of aggression; on the other, people living in
tyranny who wanted to be free. Today, thanks in no small measure to
NATO, most of Europe is free and at peace.
Today we are joined by the leaders of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
Republic, whose descent into darkness helped to spark NATO's creation.
Today they are a part of NATO, pledged to defend what was too long
denied to them. So we say to Prime Minister Orban, President Havel, President
Kwasniewski: Welcome to NATO, welcome
home to the community of freedom.
As we look to the future, we know that for the first time in history
we have a chance to build a Europe truly undivided, peaceful, and free.
But we know there are challenges to that vision: in the fragility of new
democracies; in the proliferation of deadly weapons and terrorism; and
surely, in the awful specter of ethnic cleansing in southeast Europe,
where Mr. Milosevic--first in Croatia and
Slovenia, then in Bosnia, now in Kosovo--has inflamed ancient
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hatreds to gain and maintain his power. He is bent on dehumanizing,
indeed, destroying a whole people and their culture and, in the process,
driving his own people to deep levels of distress.
We're in Kosovo because we want to replace ethnic cleansing with
tolerance and decency, violence with security, disintegration with
restoration, isolation with integration into the rest of the region and
the continent. We want southeastern Europe to travel the same road as
Western Europe half a century ago and Central Europe a decade ago.
But we are fundamentally there because the Alliance will not have
meaning in the 21st century if it permits the slaughter of innocents on
its doorstep. This is not a question of territorial conquest or
political domination but standing for the values that made NATO possible
in the first place.
This is the mission of NATO at the age of 50 on the edge of a new
century, determined to reach forward into the future with a united
continent, with a collective defense, remaining open to new members from
the Baltics to the Black Sea, remaining committed to work with partners
for peace and progress, including Russia and Ukraine, and others who are
willing to work for the values and the future we dream of. This is the
kind of alliance we come to this summit to reaffirm and to build for the
future.
Almost 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt said something
that could well be applied to a united Europe and to our united
transatlantic Alliance today. Of America's coming of age in the world,
he said, ``We have no choice as to whether we will play a great part in
the world. That has been determined for us by fate, by the march of
events. The only question is whether we will play it well or ill.''
Our nations played our part well after World War II, from the Berlin
airlift to the founding of NATO, to the restoration of hope and
confidence in Western Europe. We played it well after the cold war, from
the reunification of Germany to the enlargement of NATO, to the support
we have offered democratic open government in Russia and Ukraine, and
the reach out we have done to other partners for peace. We played it
well when we joined together to end the slaughter in Bosnia.
Now we rise, as we must, to this new and fundamental challenge to
the peace and humanity of Europe. Our message is clear: Peace and
humanity will prevail in Kosovo. The refugees will go home; they will
have security; they will have their self-government. The last European
dictatorship of the 20th century will not destroy Europe's long-awaited
chance to live, at last, together in peace and freedom.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at approximately 1:15 p.m. in the Mellon
Auditorium. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary General Javier
Solana of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Prime Minister Viktor
Orban of Hungary; President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic;
President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland; and President Slobodan
Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).
The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also
included the remarks of Secretary General Solana.