[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[June 5, 1994]
[Pages 1035-1038]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Sam Donaldson of ABC News
June 5, 1994

North Korea

    Mr. Donaldson. Mr. President, thank you very much for the interview. 
A lot of people have suggested that if North Korea can't be brought to 
reason and other nations such as China and Russia don't support tough 
sanctions, that the United States ought to impose them unilaterally. Do 
you agree?
    The President. Let me first say that the American people need to 
understand what's at stake here. They agreed not to become a nuclear 
power. They have honored the testing requirements for what they've done 
since I've been in office. But they still haven't allowed us to test for 
what they did in 1989. Under those circumstances, I don't think we have 
any choice but to go to the United Nations for sanctions. I have talked 
with President Yeltsin, along with Prime Minister Major and the new 
Prime Minister of Italy, Mr. Berlusconi. I'm going to see the French 
leaders the day after tomorrow. We are in touch with the Chinese.
    I believe there is a general sense in the world community that we 
have to go forward with a sanctions resolution in the United Nations. I 
don't want to say what I'll do if we lose there because I'm not prepared 
to say we will lose there. I think most people know and believe that the 
North Koreans should cooperate on this. After all, they promised to do 
it. We're just asking them to keep their word.
    Mr. Donaldson. I understand, sir, but Secretary Perry suggested 
today that in fact the United States would do it alone if it had to.
    The President. Well, there is--we would not have to go it alone. The 
real question is could we have what has been called a coalition of the 
willing that included as many nations as would observe the sanctions as 
possible? The answer to that is we would certainly consider that if we 
failed at the United Nations. But keep in mind, China and Russia have 
both moved toward the West. And both have interests like Japan's, South 
Korea's, and the United States. None of us wish North Korea to be a 
nuclear power. And all of us know they promised they wouldn't be one. 
All of us know they still deal with other rogue states who support

[[Page 1036]]

terrorists. And we don't think this is a very good trend. So I think 
we'll work together. I predict to you that we'll work out a common 
course. And of course what I hope is that the North Koreans will turn 
away and come back to us.
    Mr. Donaldson. Senator Dole said yesterday that North Korea's 
bluffing, he believes, when it says that it would invade the South if 
tough sanctions are imposed. Do you think they're bluffing?
    The President. I don't think that they would risk the certain 
terrible defeat and destruction that would occur if they did that. But 
we can't afford to assume anything. That is, what I have tried to do is 
to make sure our people are well prepared and well disciplined for all 
eventualities, as they have been, I think, throughout their presence in 
Korea.
    General Luck asked me for some extra support, and we've provided 
that. And I'm confident we're there, prepared to do our job. But I don't 
want any war talk. I want this to be about peace talk. What happens in 
North Korea and to North Korea is a function of what North Korea does, 
not the rest of us.
    Mr. Donaldson. I understand, sir, that you don't want any war talk, 
but to put it very bluntly, I think a lot of people want to know whether 
the Clinton administration will back down if push comes to shove.
    The President. No, the answer to that is no. The answer is we are in 
South Korea. We have a solemn commitment to them. They are our allies. 
They are certainly prepared to go forward in the United Nations; so are 
we.
    Senator Dole says they're bluffing when they consider sanctions to 
be an act of war; I think that may be the opinion most people have. But 
nonetheless, we are going to be extra prepared. We want to do what we 
can to do our mission and to protect the American troops there as much 
as possible. I just don't want to raise any red flags of fear. We need 
to be very firm, very resolute, and go forward.
    I'm talking to the other world leaders about it. I think we will go 
forward.

The Economy

    Mr. Donaldson. Mr. President, Bob Woodward's coming out with a book 
in which he says that Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Fed, has been 
sort of a teacher to you and in fact has swayed you from your original 
campaign commitments in a populist sense. Is that right?
    The President. No. But it is true that I've had probably a more 
candid relationship with Mr. Greenspan than previous Presidents. That's 
because I believed very strongly that unless we got interest rates down 
last year we couldn't spur this economy. I think in general our economic 
plan, our process for developing the plan was a good one. The decisions 
we made were right. I think that there is no better populism than 
producing 3.36 millions jobs in 16 months. I think we've done a pretty 
good job.
    And I talked with Mr. Greenspan extensively without asking him to 
promise me what he was going to do, because I wanted to get a feel for 
how the Fed looked at this. What we wanted to do was get the deficit 
down, get interest rates down, cut spending, but increase investment in 
education and training and new technologies. We have done that.
    Mr. Donaldson. Interest rates did come down, but now long-term 
interest rates are about where they were when your Presidency began. And 
short-term rates are being jacked up by the Fed.
    The President. But why? Why are they going up? They're going up this 
time because there is robust growth in the economy, because jobs are 
being created, because, to quote the Fed, they want ``short-term 
interest rates to be a neutral position,'' that is, neither promoting 
growth nor retarding it, so that the natural growth of the economy can 
take place. And the Fed announced the last time they raised rates that 
they--implicitly they said they weren't going to do it for a while. And 
if they don't do it for a while, the economy will continue to grow.
    Mr. Donaldson. So it would suit you if we've seen the last hike in 
short-term interest rates this year?
    The President. In the absence of evidence of inflation, yes. There 
is no compelling evidence that there's a lot of long-term inflation on 
the horizon. We have good growth in the economy. The strategy is 
working; we're creating jobs. That's the only thing that matters. Are 
the American people going back to work? Are we turning the economy 
around? The answer to that is yes.
    Mr. Donaldson. But you know, I think a lot of people don't 
understand that when employment rises and when growth is pretty good, 
the

[[Page 1037]]

bond market goes nuts. Does that make any sense?
    The President. It hasn't been an entirely rational policy. And I'm 
not sure that people who fix the interest rates the Government charges 
weren't surprised a little by what the bond market has done. Keep in 
mind, we can't be governed by the momentary trends in the bond market or 
the stock market to a lesser extent because they move for reasons that 
may not be tied to the real economy.
    I can remember times, if you go back to the eighties and the early 
nineties, where the stock market would go up and the bond market would 
go up and the economy would go down. And what we want is, we want a 
healthy stock market, we want a healthy bond market, that is, strong 
bond prices, low interest rates, but we really want a healthy real 
economy. We want it on Main Street. We want people working. Right now, 
the Main Street economy is coming back. That's the economy that I wanted 
to change as President.

Virginia Senatorial Campaign

    Mr. Donaldson. Let me move on to another topic. Colonel Oliver North 
was nominated yesterday in Virginia by the Republicans. Is it going to 
be a tough race for Senator Robb? What do you think?
    The President. Well, I expect so. Colonel North represents a clear 
choice for the people of Virginia and the clear triumph for the radical 
right. They have been working to try to take over, first, the Republican 
Party and, second, this country, pretty hard now for 15 years. They've 
been up; they've been down. They're up again right now. And they 
represent a dramatic break there. They can raise a lot of money. They 
will stop at nothing. They will say anything. I know; I'm probably the 
prime recipient of their venom. And my guess is that the people of 
Virginia, once they see what their stark choices are, will choose 
Senator Robb. He distinguished himself as a Marine Corps officer in 
combat, in peacetime. He was a good Governor. He's been a good Senator. 
I believe he will prevail.

D-Day Commemoration

    Mr. Donaldson. All right. Let me move now to D-Day. Mr. President, I 
was here 10 years ago when Ronald Reagan gave all those wonderful 
speeches and brought tears to everyone's eyes. Now, that's a tough act 
to follow. Are you going to be able to follow it?
    The President. I don't think of it that way. What I have tried to do 
is to speak for the American people on this occasion. I worked hard to 
learn as much as I could about it, to talk to many veterans, to talk to 
people who actually came out of those landing craft and poured onto the 
beaches. And I'm going to do my best to speak for America. My job is to 
do the very best I can in the moment that I am President with this 
responsibility. I can't think about what anybody else did. I was moved 
by what he said. And I hope that I will capture the moment for America.

Vietnam War

    Mr. Donaldson. Sir, you know that there are going to be a lot of 
people out there who resent the fact that you didn't serve and 
particularly because they believe you made a deliberate effort to avoid 
service. What would you say to them?
    The President. Well, I can't add much to what I said in the campaign 
and much to what the evidence shows. I did feel ambivalence. I also at 
one time made an attempt, as you know, to get back into the draft, but 
that's not the important thing. I can't change the fact that I was 
opposed to our involvement in Vietnam. I still think on balance it did 
more harm than good even though we were well motivated. But we can't 
rewrite history. You can only live in the time and place that you are. 
And I am doing my best to do a good job and to be faithful to my duties 
as Commander in Chief. I have worked hard at it. I have aggressively 
sought out the best opinions I could get in the military. And I work at 
it every day.
    I must say I've been very touched by the World War II veterans who 
in such large numbers--particularly when I was in Italy, had the chance 
to spend a couple hours with them--said that they were supporting me. 
And these young men here said the same thing. I have to do my job now. I 
can't be encumbered by what other people think about that.
    Mr. Donaldson. Mr. President, my time is up. I thank you for the 
interview. Rick Kaplan wanted me to ask a number of mean questions, and 
I want the record to show that I refrained from doing so. [Laughter]
    The President. You tell Rick not to discipline you too hard. 
[Laughter]

[[Page 1038]]

    Mr. Donaldson. Thank you very much, sir.
    The President. Thanks.

Note: The interview began at 8:25 p.m. aboard the U.S.S. George 
Washington en route to Normandy, France. In his remarks, the President 
referred to Rick Kaplan, executive producer, ``ABC World News Tonight.'' 
A tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
interview.