[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16368-S16369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BOSNIAN PEACE POLICY

  Mr. KERRY. I listened with interest to the comments of the Senator 
from Connecticut, with whom I worked on this issue, and others. He is 
correct that certainly the resolution passed by the Senate with respect 
to the arms embargo sent a message. But the truth is that the policy 
that has been put in place in Bosnia that has been successful was the 
opposite of what that resolution called on the Senate to do. People 
should reflect on that. The resolution that was passed so dramatically 
by the Senate said, ``Let's abandon the place and basically just arm 
them and let them fight.'' Many of us argued that that would have been 
a disastrous event for the world, for the United Nations, for NATO, and 
that everybody would have been left asking who was responsible for this 
extraordinary mess if that had, indeed, been the policy of this 
country.
  Courageously, the President pursued a different policy. The different 
policy that he pursued was to finally elicit from our friends and 
allies in Europe a willingness to do what the President had been asking 
them to do for some period of time, which was to be willing to take 
certain risks, use the power of NATO, and try to force the process to 
peace talks.
  There is less killing in Bosnia today than there would have been if 
the policy of the United States Senate had been pursued. There is less 
killing today because the President and NATO and the European leaders 
undertook a policy, which I will agree was one that 

[[Page S16369]]

many of us would have liked to have seen put into place some time 
previously, but nevertheless, a policy different from that espoused by 
the Senate. It is a policy which now, hopefully, could conceivably 
result in a peace, though I think Secretary Holbrooke is accurate to 
say this is a gamble. There are huge variables, and I do not think 
expectations ought to be high, though obviously hopes ought to be high.

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