    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [December 1, 1994]
    [Pages 2130-2132]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Defense Readiness and an Exchange With Reporters
    December 1, 1994

        The President. Good afternoon. Secretary Perry, General
    Shalikashvili, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I have pledged that
    throughout the life of this administration, our military will remain the
    best trained, the best equipped, the best prepared fighting force on
    Earth. I'm happy to be here today with Secretary Perry and with the
    Joint Chiefs to reinforce that commitment and to announce a new
    initiative to ensure military readiness and to give our military and
    their families the support they deserve.
        During our first year in office, we undertook a fundamental review
    from the bottom up of our Nation's defense capacity and our strategy.
    Building on the efforts of the previous administration and bipartisan
    support in the Congress, we continue to restructure our Nation's
    military forces to meet the challenges to American leadership in the
    post-cold-war era. I directed that our Armed Forces be ready to face two
    major regional conflicts occurring almost simultaneously. Since then, I
    have repeatedly resisted calls to cut our forces further, to cut our
    budget below the levels recommended in that bottom-up review, and I have
    drawn the line against further defense cuts.
        During these past 2 years, our military has time and again
    demonstrated its readiness and its war-fighting and peacekeeping
    capabilities. From Korea to Macedonia to Rwanda and Haiti, we have
    placed great burdens on our men and women in uniform, and they have
    responded magnificently. They have demonstrated a truly outstanding
    ability to deploy quickly, provide security, and to help ensure
    stability.
        When our forces deployed with extraordinary speed and efficiency to
    the Persian Gulf in October, Saddam Hussein got the message. We
    decisively deterred the Iraqi threat to the region's security. And when
    our armed services, cooperating in an unprecedented fashion, stood ready
    to back up our diplomatic efforts in Haiti, we helped set the stage for
    restoration of democracy in that nation.
        Whether our forces are engaged in combat, acting as peacekeepers, or
    delivering humanitarian assistance, we must continue to review their
    requirements, provide adequate funding, and keep our military edge.
    Secretary Perry and I have repeatedly stated that our number one
    commitment is to the readiness and well-being of our men and women in
    uniform.
        I'm announcing today a five-part initiative to ensure that our Armed
    Forces receive the resources and the support they need to continue their
    high standard of performance. First, I intend to ask Congress to add an
    additional $25 billion to our planned defense budgets over the next 6
    years. Second, I will seek the full pay raise allowed by law for our
    uniformed military through the turn of the century. Third, I will fully
    support other quality-of-life initiatives which were outlined by
    Secretary Perry last

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    month. We will spend what is required to ensure that our military live
    in adequate housing and are provided the necessary child care and
    receive the support they and their families need to serve our Nation.
    Fourth, I will ask the Congress to provide for real growth in the
    defense budget during the last 2 years of our next 6-year plan to help
    ensure that the American military enters the 21st century with the most
    modern equipment available. And finally, we will send to Congress with
    our budget next year an emergency supplemental funding for the current
    fiscal year to reimburse the military for its unanticipated expenditures
    with the operations in the Gulf, the Adriatic, Haiti, and elsewhere and
    to protect us from dipping into important readiness funding. These funds
    will enable us to maintain the readiness and training we will need to
    accomplish our missions in the coming year.

        I urge Congress to quickly approve this supplemental request so that
    we do not face the kind of problems we confronted this fall when
    Congress delayed its approval of the last supplemental funding request.

        These actions I'm announcing today reinforce our administration's
    commitment and my personal commitment to maintaining the highest
    training standards for our military, to preparing them to depart on
    missions around the world at a moment's notice. They will ensure that
    our men and women in uniform can be assured that their families are
    getting the kind of support they need and deserve. We ask much of our
    military, and we owe much to them in return.

        Our Armed Forces are the backbone of our national security strategy.
    They stand behind our efforts to maintain peace and security all around
    the world. I call on the new Congress to give these initiatives their
    full support.

        Thank you very much.

    Bosnia

        Q. Mr. President, are you ready to send U.S. ground troops to Bosnia
    to help in any evacuation of U.N. peacekeepers if that is necessary?

        The President. There has been no discussion of that, and the U.N.
    peacekeepers have not decided to leave Bosnia.

        Thank you.

    Defense Readiness

        Q. Mr. President, some critics might argue that your action today is
    a passive admission that defense has been cut too much.

        The President. That's not right. What we have done--I'll remind you,
    we started out, when I became President--when I became President I said,
    we have a commitment to maintain readiness and the quality of life for
    our troops; we have a commitment to be able to meet our strategic
    mission, which is principally to be able to conduct two regional
    conflicts nearly simultaneously. We have reviewed that; we have managed
    that. In the last 2 years, we have also had significant costs for other
    things, as you know. And our military has performed very well in Haiti,
    in the Gulf, in dealing with the migration problems in Cuba, in Haiti,
    and in many, many other areas. We've also stepped up a lot of our
    operations in the Adriatic and in the area around Bosnia.

        So we have had a lot of unanticipated costs. And what we've tried to
    do is to look at this and then decide what it would take to maintain our
    readiness in the short term and in the long run. The short-term problems
    can be readily remedied by the emergency supplemental that I've asked
    for and by the budgetary changes that I am making. The long-term
    problems will require the adoption of this five-point plan.

        We are moving into the future with a very aggressive strategy. It is
    consistent with the commitments I made when I came here. And we have
    seen the military, frankly, have to deal with an amazing number and
    variety of unanticipated challenges. They have done so with great skill,
    but now they need the support that I think we ought to give them.

        And in this era when we are definitely going to continue to reduce
    the size of the budget, we are going to continue to cut Government, we
    are going to give the American people a leaner Government, I still
    believe the people of this country expect us to do right by our men and
    women in uniform and to maintain our readiness and preparedness and to
    plan for the future. And that's what this budget does. That's my job;
    that's the Secretary of Defense's job; that's the Joint Chiefs' job, and
    we're here doing it today.

    [[Page 2132]]

        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:54 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House.