    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [May 31, 1995]
    [Pages 765-770]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the United States Air Force Academy Commencement Ceremony in
    Colorado Springs, Colorado
    May 31, 1995

        The President. Thank you very much, General Stein.
        Audience member. Soo-o-ey! [Laughter]
        The President. That's my home State cheer, for those of you unused
    to foreign languages being spoken here in Falcon Stadium. [Laughter]
    Thank you very much.
        General Stein, thank you. Secretary Widnall, General Fogleman,
    Governor Romer, Congressman Ramstad; to the distinguished faculty and
    staff; to the proud parents, family, and friends; to the members of the
    Cadet Wing: We gather here to celebrate this very important moment in
    your life and in the life of our Nation. Gentlemen and gentleladies of
    this class, the pride of '95, this is your day. And you are only one
    speech, one pretty short speech--[laughter]--away from being second
    lieutenants.
        I am honored to share this day with some exceptionally accomplished
    alumni of the Air Force Academy: General Fogleman, the first of your
    graduates to be the Air Force Chief of Staff; General Hopper, the first
    African-American graduate of the Academy to serve as the Commandant of
    Cadets; and a member of my staff, Robert Bell, who is the first graduate
    of the Air Force Academy to be the Senior Director for Defense Policy
    and Arms Control at the National Security Council. As I look out at all
    of you, I imagine it won't be too long before there's a graduate of the
    Air Force Academy in the Oval Office. If it's all the same to you, I'd
    like to delay it for just a few years. [Laughter]
        I also want to congratulate the Air Force Academy on extending its
    lock on the Commander in Chief's trophy here that--I'm in your stadium,
    I think I ought to mention that your winning squad came to see me in the
    White House not very long ago, and I said that before I became President
    I didn't understand that when I heard that the Commander in Chief's
    trophy was a traveling trophy, that meant it was supposed to go back and
    forth between Washington and Colorado Springs every year.
        I want to do my part in another longstanding tradition. By the power
    vested in me as Commander in Chief, I hereby grant amnesty to cadets who
    are marching tours or serving restrictions or confinements for minor
    misconduct. Now, General Stein, I have to leave it to you to define
    which offenses are minor, but on this day, even in this conservative
    age, I trust you will be fairly liberal in your interpretation of the
    term. [Laughter]
        Members of the class of 1995, you are about to become officers in
    the United States Air Force. You should be very proud of what you have
    already accomplished. But you should be sobered by the important
    responsibilities you are about to assume. From this day forward, every
    day you must defend our Nation, protect the lives of the men and women
    under your command, and represent the best of America.
        I want to say here as an aside, I have seen something of the debate
    in the last few days on the question of whether, in this time of
    necessity to cut budgets, we ought to close one of the service
    academies. And I just want to say I think that's one of the worst ideas
    I ever heard of.
        It was General Eisenhower who as President, along with the Congress,
    so long ago now recognized that national defense required a national

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    commitment to education. But our commitment through the service
    academies to the education and preparation of the finest military
    officers in the world must never wane. And I hope your commitment to the
    cause of education as an important element in what makes our country
    great and strong and safe will never wane.
        As President, my first responsibility is to protect and enhance the
    safety of the American people and to strengthen our country. It is a
    responsibility that you now have chosen to share. So today, I thought
    what we ought to do is talk about the steps that we will have to take
    together to make the world safer for America in the 21st century.
        Our security objectives over the last 50 years have been dictated by
    straightforward events often beyond our control. But at least they were
    straightforward and clear. In World War II, the objective was simple:
    Win the war. In the cold war, the objective was clear: Contain communism
    and prevent nuclear war. In the post-cold-war world, the objectives are
    often more complex, and it is clear that American security in the 21st
    century will be determined by forces that are operating both beyond and
    within our own borders.
        While the world you will face is far from free of danger, you must
    know that you are entering active service in a moment of enormous hope.
    We are dramatically reducing the nuclear threat. For the first time
    since the dawn of the nuclear age, there are no Russian missiles pointed
    at the people of the United States.
        From the Middle East to South Africa to Northern Ireland, Americans
    are helping former adversaries turn from conflict to cooperation. We are
    supporting democracies and market economies, like Haiti and Mexico in
    our own region and others throughout the world. We are expanding trade.
    We are working for a Europe allied with the United States, but unified
    economically and politically for the first time since nation-states
    appeared on the European Continent. Just yesterday, Russia's decision to
    actively participate in NATO's Partnership For Peace helped to lay the
    groundwork for yet another important step in establishing a secure,
    stable, and unified European Continent for the next century.
        Clearly there are powerful historical forces pulling us together: a
    worldwide thirst for freedom and democracy; a growing commitment to
    market economics; a technological revolution that moves information,
    ideas, money, and people around the globe at record speed. All these
    things are bringing us together and helping to make our future more
    secure.
        But these same forces have a dark underside which can also lead to
    more insecurity. We understand now that the openness and freedom of
    society make us even more vulnerable to the organized forces of
    destruction, the forces of terror and organized crime and drug
    trafficking. The technological revolution that is bringing our world
    closer together can also bring more and more problems to our shores. The
    end of communism has opened the door to the spread of weapons of mass
    destruction and lifted the lid on age-old conflicts rooted in ethnic,
    racial, and religious hatreds. These forces can be all the more
    destructive today because they have access to modern technology.
        Nowhere are the forces of disintegration more obvious today than in
    Bosnia. For the past 2\1/2\ years, the United States has sought to
    contain and end the conflict, to help to preserve the Bosnian nation as
    a multistate entity, multiethnic entity, to keep faith with our NATO
    allies, and to relieve human suffering.
        To these ends, we have led the NATO military responses to calls by
    the United Nations for assistance in the protection of its forces and
    safe areas for the people of Bosnia, led efforts to achieve a negotiated
    settlement, deployed peacekeeping troops to the Former Yugoslav Republic
    of Macedonia to contain the conflict within the present borders of
    Bosnia, and conducted the longest humanitarian airlift to the people
    there in history.
        Two weeks ago, the Bosnian Serbs unleashed 1,400 shells on the
    civilians of Sarajevo. The United Nations called this attack a return to
    medieval barbarism. They asked for a NATO air response, which we
    supported. Now we have joined our allies to develop a coordinated
    response to the Serbs' continued refusal to make peace and their illegal
    capturing of United Nations personnel as hostages.
        We believe still that a strengthened United Nations operation is the
    best insurance against an even worse humanitarian disaster should they
    leave. We have a longstanding commitment to help our NATO allies, some
    of whom have troops in the U.N. operation in Bosnia, to take part in a
    NATO operation to assist them in a withdrawal if that should ever become
    necessary. And so, if necessary, and after consulta-

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    tion with Congress, I believe we should be prepared to assist NATO if it
    decides to meet a request from the United Nations troops for help in a
    withdrawal or a reconfiguration and a strengthening of its forces.
        We have received no such request for any such assistance, and we
    have made no such decision. But in any event, we must know that we must
    continue to work for peace there. And I still believe that we have made
    the right decision in not committing our own troops to become embroiled
    in this conflict in Europe nor to join the United Nations operations.
        I want to say to you, we have obligations to our NATO allies, and I
    do not believe we can leave them in the lurch. So I must carefully
    review any requests for an operation involving a temporary use of our
    ground forces. But we have made the right decision in what we have done
    and what we have not done in Bosnia.
        I believe we must look at all of these problems and all these
    opportunities in new and different ways. For example, we see today that
    the clear boundaries between threats to our Nation's security from
    beyond our borders and the challenges to our security from within our
    borders are being blurred. One once was clearly the province of the
    armed services, the other clearly the province of local law enforcement.
    Today, we see people from overseas coming to our country for terrorist
    purposes, blurring what is our national security. We must see the
    threats for what they are and fashion our response based on their true
    nature, not just where they occur.
        In these new and different times, we must pursue three priorities to
    enhance our security. First, we have to combat those who would destroy
    democratic societies, including ours, through terrorism, organized
    crime, and drug trafficking. Secondly, we have to reduce the threat of
    weapons of mass destruction, whether they're nuclear, chemical, or
    biological. Third, we have to provide our military, you and people like
    you, with the resources, training, and strategic direction necessary to
    protect the American people and our interests around the world.
        The struggle against the forces of terror, organized crime, and drug
    trafficking is now uppermost on our minds because of what we have
    endured as a nation, the World Trade Center bombing, the terrible
    incident in Oklahoma City, and what we have seen elsewhere, the nerve
    gas attack in Tokyo, the slaughter of innocent civilians by those who
    would destroy the peace in the Middle East, the organized crime now
    plaguing the former Soviet Union--so much that one of the first requests
    we get in every one of those countries is ``Send in the FBI; we need
    help''--the drug cartels in Latin America and Asia that threaten the
    open societies and the fragile democracies there. All these things we
    know can emerge from without our borders and from within our borders.
    Free and open societies are inherently more vulnerable to these kinds of
    forces. Therefore, we must remain vigilant, reduce our vulnerability,
    and constantly renew our efforts to defeat them.
        We work closely with foreign governments. We share intelligence. We
    provide military support. We initiate anticorruption and money-
    laundering programs to stop drug trafficking at its source. We've opened
    an FBI office in Moscow, a training center in Hungary to help combat
    international organized crime. Over the past 2 years, we've waged a
    tough counterterrorism campaign, strengthening our laws, increasing
    manpower and training for the CIA and the FBI, imposing sanctions on
    states that sponsor terrorism.
        Many of these efforts have paid off. We were able to arrest and
    quickly convict those responsible for the World Trade Center bombing, to
    stop another terrible planned attack in New York as well as a plan to
    blow up American civilian airliners over the Pacific, and help to bring
    to justice terrorists around the world.
        In the aftermath of Oklahoma City, our top law enforcement officers
    told us they needed new tools to fight terrorism, and I proposed
    legislation to provide those tools: more than 1,000 new law enforcement
    personnel solely working on terrorism; a domestic antiterrorism center;
    tough new punishment for trafficking in stolen explosives, for attacking
    members of the Uniformed Services or Federal workers; the enabling of
    law enforcement officials to mark explosive materials so they can be
    more easily traced; the empowering of law enforcement officials with
    authority to move legal, and I emphasize legal, wiretaps when terrorists
    quickly move their bases of operation without having to go back for a
    new court order; and finally, in a very limited way, the authority to
    use the unique capacity of our military where chemical or biological
    weapons are involved here at home, just as we now can call on those
    capabilities to fight nuclear threats.

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        I'm sure every graduate of this Academy knows of the posse comitatus
    rule, the clear line that says members of the uniformed military will
    not be involved in domestic law enforcement. That is a good rule. We
    should honor that rule. The only narrow exception for it that I know of
    today is the ability of law enforcement in America to call upon the
    unique expertise of the military when there is a potential threat of a
    nuclear weapon in the hands of the wrong people. All we are asking for
    in the aftermath of the terrible incident in the Tokyo subway is the
    same access to the same expertise should chemical and biological weapons
    be involved.
        The congressional leadership pledged its best efforts to put this
    bill on my desk by Memorial Day. But Memorial Day has come and gone, and
    only the Senate has taken the bill up. And even there, in my judgment,
    there are too many amendments that threaten too much delay.
        Congress has a full agenda of important issues, including passing a
    responsible budget. But all this will take time. When it comes to
    terrorism, time is a luxury we don't have. Some are even now saying we
    should just go slow on this legislation. Well, Congress has a right to
    review this legislation to make sure the civil liberties of American
    citizens are not infringed, and I encourage them to do that. But they
    should not go slow. Terrorists do not go slow, my fellow Americans.
    Their agenda is death and destruction on their own timetable. And we
    need to make sure that we can do everything possible to stop them from
    succeeding.
        Six weeks after Oklahoma City, months after the first antiterrorism
    legislation was sent by the White House to Congress, there is no further
    excuse for delay. Fighting terrorism is a big part of our national
    security today, and it will be well into the 21st century. And I ask
    Congress to act and act now.
        Our obligations to fight these forces of terror is closely related
    to our efforts to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction. All
    of us, I'm sure, ached and wept with the people of Japan when we saw
    what a small vial of chemical gas could do when unleashed in the subway
    station. And we breathed a sigh of relief when the alert officers there
    prevented the two chemicals from uniting and forming poison which could
    have killed hundreds and hundreds of people just a few days after that.
    The breakup of the Soviet Union left nuclear material scattered
    throughout the Newly Independent States and increased the potential for
    the theft of those materials and for organized criminals to enter the
    nuclear smuggling business. As horrible as the tragedies in Oklahoma
    City and the World Trade Center were, imagine the destruction that could
    have resulted had there been a small-scale nuclear device exploded
    there.
        The United States will retain as long as necessary an arsenal of
    nuclear forces to deter any future hostile action by any regime that has
    nuclear weapons. But I will also continue to pursue the most ambitious
    agenda to dismantle and fight the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
    other weapons of mass destruction since the dawn of the nuclear age.
        This effort is succeeding, and we should support it. No Russian
    missiles are pointed at America. No American missiles are aimed at
    Russia. Because we put the START I treaty into force, Russia is helping
    us and joining us in dismantling thousands of nuclear weapons. Our
    patient, determined diplomacy convinced Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus
    to give up their weapons when the Soviet Union fell apart. We are
    cooperating with these nations and others to safeguard nuclear materials
    and stop their spread.
        And just last month, we got the indefinite and unconditional
    extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which will benefit not only
    this generation of Americans but future generations as well by
    preventing scores of countries from developing and acquiring nuclear
    weapons. More than 170 nations have signed on to this treaty. They vow
    they will either never acquire nuclear weapons or, if they have them,
    that they won't help others obtain them, and they will pursue arms
    control and disarmament.
        We have to now go even further. There is no excuse for the Senate to
    go slow on approving two other vital measures, the START II treaty and
    the Chemical Weapons Convention. START II will enable us to reduce by
    two-thirds the number of strategic warheads deployed at the height of
    the cold war. The Chemical Weapons Convention requires the destruction
    of chemical weapon stockpiles around the world and provides severe
    penalties for those who sell materials to build these weapons to
    terrorists or to criminals. It would make a chemical terror, like the
    tragic attack in the Tokyo subway, much, much more difficult. Both START
    II and the Chemical Weapons Conven-

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    tion will make every American safer, and we need them now.
        There is more to do. We are working to complete negotiations on a
    comprehensive test ban treaty, to implement the agreement we reached
    with North Korea to freeze and dismantle that country's nuclear program,
    to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention. It is an ambitious
    agenda, but it is worthy of this moment, and it will make your future as
    officers in the United States Air Force, American citizens, and when
    you're parents and grandparents more secure.
        Finally, let me say that none of this will work unless we also are
    faithful to our obligation to support a strong and adaptable military
    for the 21st century. The men and women of our Armed Forces remain the
    foundation, the fundamental foundation of our security. You put the
    steel into our diplomacy. You get the job done when all means short of
    force have been tried and failed.
        We saw your strength on display in Haiti, where a brutal military
    regime agreed to step down peacefully only, and I emphasize only, when
    it learned that more than 60 C-130's and C-140's loaded with
    paratroopers were in the air and on the way. Now the Haitian people have
    a second chance to rebuild their nation.
        We then saw your speed in the Persian Gulf, when Iraq massed its
    troops on the Kuwaiti border and threatened regional instability. I
    ordered our planes, ships, and troops into the Gulf. You got there in
    such a hurry that Iraq got out of the way in a hurry.
        We saw your compassion in Rwanda, where you flew tons of supplies,
    medicines, and foods into a nation torn apart by violence and saved
    countless lives.
        All over the world, you have met your responsibilities with skill
    and professionalism, keeping peace, making peace, saving lives,
    protecting American interests. In turn, your country has a
    responsibility to make sure you have the resources, the flexibility, the
    tools you need to do the job. We have sought to make good on that
    obligation by crafting a defense strategy for our time.
        And I'd like to say here today that one of the principal architects
    of that strategy was our recently deceased former Defense Secretary, Les
    Aspin. During his many years in the Congress as head of the Armed
    Services Committee, as Secretary of Defense, and as head of the
    President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, he devoted a lifetime
    to this country's defense. And we will miss him terribly. And we are
    very grateful for the legacy he left: a blueprint for reshaping our
    military to the demands of the 21st century, a blueprint that calls on
    us to make sure that any force reductions we began at the end of the
    cold war do not jeopardize our strength over the long run, that calls on
    us to provide you with the resources you need to meet the challenges of
    a world plagued by ancient conflicts and new instabilities.
        All of you know here that after World War II a major drawdown left
    us at a major disadvantage when war broke out in Korea. And just 5 years
    after the post-Vietnam drawdown, in 1980, the Army Chief of Staff
    declared that we had a hollow Army, a view shared by most experts. We
    have been determined not to repeat those mistakes.
        Even as we draw down troops, we know we have to be prepared to
    engage and prevail in two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts.
    Some argued that this scenario was unrealistic and excessively
    demanding. Recent events have proved that they were wrong and shown that
    we are pursuing the right strategy and the right force levels for these
    times.
        Last summer, just before the North Koreans finally agreed to
    dismantle their nuclear program, we were poised to send substantial air,
    naval, and ground reinforcements to defend South Korea. Just a few
    months later, we deployed tens of thousands of troops to the Gulf and
    placed thousands more on alert. And in between those crises, I gave the
    go-ahead to the 25,000 troops engaged in Operation Uphold Democracy in
    Haiti.
        In Haiti, the operation was especially historic because it was the
    most fully integrated military plan ever carried out in our history. The
    four services worked together, drawing on each other's special abilities
    more than ever before. And for the first time, we were ready to launch
    Army infantry and an air assault from a Navy aircraft carrier. When we
    decided to send our troops in peacefully, we did it in hours, not days.
    That kind of innovation and the ability to do that is what your country
    owes you as you walk out of this stadium today as officers in the United
    States Air Force.
        This then will be our common security mission, yours and mine and
    all Americans': to take on terrorism, organized crime, and drug
    trafficking; to reduce the nuclear threat and the threat

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    of biological and chemical weapons; to keep our military flexible and
    strong. These must be the cornerstones of our program to build a safer
    America at a time when threats to our security have no respect for
    boundaries and when the boundaries between those threats are
    disappearing.
        Abroad, as at home, we must measure the success of our efforts by
    one simple standard: Have we made the lives of the American people
    safer? Have we made the future for our children more secure?
        Let me say to this class, I know that the rewards of serving on the
    front lines of our foreign policy may seem distant and uncertain at
    times. Thirty-four years ago, President Kennedy said, ``When there is a
    visible enemy to fight, the tide of patriotism runs high. But when there
    is a long, slow struggle with no immediate visible foe, your choice will
    seem hard indeed.'' Your choice, your choice, ladies and gentlemen, to
    take on the problems and possibilities of this time, to engage the
    world, not to run from it, is the right choice.
        As you have learned here at the Academy, it demands sacrifice. In
    the years ahead, you will be asked to travel a long way from home, to be
    away from your loved ones for long stretches of time, to face dangers we
    perhaps cannot yet even imagine. These are the burdens you have
    willingly agreed to bear for your country, its safety, and its long-term
    security.
        Go forth, knowing that the American people support you, that they
    admire your dedication. They are grateful for your service. They are
    counting on you, the class of '95, to lead us into the 21st century, and
    they believe you truly do represent the best of America.
        Good luck, and Godspeed.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:13 a.m. at Falcon Stadium. In his
    remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. Paul Stein, USAF, Superintendent, and
    Brig. Gen. John D. Hopper, Jr., USAF, Commandant of Cadets, U.S. Air
    Force Academy; Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman, USAF, Air Force Chief of Staff;
    and Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado.