[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[September 16, 1994]
[Pages 1561-1562]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters on Haiti
September 16, 1994

    The President. Thank you for coming in; I'm glad to see you. I 
wanted to make three quick points. One is, we had a detailed briefing 
this morning from General Shalikashvili, and I feel good about the 
extraordinary work and preparation that our military leaders have done. 
Second, we're up to 24 nations now participating in the coalition, and I 
feel very good about that. I think there will be more; I think we'll 
have more before very long. And the third thing that I want to say is, 
I've seen a copy of the remarks that President Aristide is going to 
deliver today, and I'm pleased with that. I think it is very important, 
in light of all the things that have occurred from the time he was 
elected forward, that this message of reconciliation be genuine, 
sincere, and straightforward. And I think it will be, and I feel good 
about that.
    And I know some of you have been somewhat skeptical of that. And I 
would remind you that there's one event which has occurred in recent 
times which I think will reinforce it, and that is the meeting in Paris 
which got together the proposed aid package for Haiti to create the 
economic opportunity for the Haitians, which I think is clearly premised 
on the right sort of spirit of going forward down there and the whole 
promise of reconciliation being realized. So I feel good about it. And 
Admiral Miller's done a marvelous job. I thank you, sir, for what you've 
done.
    Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt the briefing--[laughter]--see so 
many----
    Q. Are you nervous?
    The President. Am I nervous? No, I feel good about it. I don't know 
if good is the right word. I think the policy is right, and I think that 
I have done the best I could to present it to the American people and we 
have done the best we could to prepare. And I have enormous confidence 
in the work that others have done. I think they have done the best they 
could.
    We don't live in a risk-free world, and there are risks associated 
with anything we did or didn't do. But I think we're doing the right 
thing, and I think we have the right people doing the right thing. 
That's all I could ever ask for. And I've made the decision, so if it 
doesn't go right, I'm responsible.
    Q. Secretary Christopher says that he expects more public support 
and more support on the Hill now, Mr. President. Do you expect to get 
fairly strong support in Congress now?
    The President. I don't know; I can't answer that. I hope so. But he 
may know more about it than I do. All I can tell you is I've done the 
very best I could, and I hope they'll be supportive for it. I'm 
encouraged by the indications that the American people are more 
supportive. My sense is that the important things to a lot of Americans 
about last night were--first of all, I think more and more are learning 
about the human rights abuses and how that reinforces the arguments we 
made about immigration and democracy. But I think most of the people are 
focused on that.
    But the two things I think that a lot of Americans got last night 
from an informational point of view were, one, the extraordinary efforts 
we have made in the diplomatic area and the patience we've shown and the 
rebuffs we've received over a long period of time. And two, I think a 
lot of Americans had forgotten about the Governors Island Agreement and 
that it was broken. And most Americans think when you make a deal with 
this country, you ought to

[[Page 1562]]

keep it. And so I feel--all I can tell you is I feel good about it.
    Q. Why did you wait so long to make your case to the American 
people?
    The President. Well, I've been talking about this all along, you 
know. I waited so long to make an Oval Office address because you can 
only make--I mean, it's only appropriate to make one Oval Office address 
on a subject like this. And we have done the best we could. We exhausted 
all other alternatives. I thought this was the right time. I did the 
best I could with it.
    Adm. Paul Miller. Mr. President, before you leave, can I just report 
one thing to you? Yesterday I was at Fort Drum up in New York; that's 
the 10th Mountain. And one of the commanders mentioned that a battalion 
of troops are going to be involved. There was 50-some that could leave 
the Army before the projected time was up, and 21 of them said, ``We 
want to stay.'' So that shows support from the uniformed side, from the 
practitioner, the youngster. They want to be there, and that's what the 
call to duty was. I just wanted to mention that.
    The President. Thank you very much. Two young men--when we were in 
Berlin a few months ago and cased the colors of the Berlin Brigade and I 
met with some of the young soldiers there, two of them asked me to 
please delay any action in Haiti until they got home so they could go. 
That's very rewarding. Thank you, sir.
    Goodbye.

Note: The President spoke at 12:02 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. Adm. Paul D. Miller was Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. 
A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.