    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [February 13, 1995]
    [Pages 201-202]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting a Report on Reform of
    United Nations Peacekeeping
    February 13, 1995

    Dear Mr. Chairman:  (Dear Member:)
        There have been few times in history when mankind has had such an
    opportunity to enhance peace. The founding of the United Nations fifty
    years ago was one such opportunity. The victorious Allies put in place
    an institutional mechanism that could be used to enhance peace.
    Unfortunately, it was not used properly, and Cold War replaced peace.
        Now, with the Cold War behind us, we have another important
    opportunity. Around the world, old enemies are coming together in the
    Middle East, South Africa, Haiti, Ireland, Central America, and across
    the great rift that divided Europe for almost five decades. This is a
    unique period. It can be, as was written in Ecclesiastes, a time for
    peace.
        Peace, however, does not come easily or quickly. Numerous threats
    remain to our own and our allies' security.
        For our generation to seize this opportunity for wider global peace,
    America must stay engaged. We must also be prepared to pay our fair
    share of the price of peace, for it is far less than the cost of war.
        One of the tools we have to build this new peace is that institution
    created fifty years ago, the United Nations. As the Cold War ended, the
    previous Administration turned to the UN and its peacekeeping mechanism
    to deal with many of the conflicts left over from the superpowers'
    competition. As a result, the number of UN peacekeepers and their cost
    sky-rocketed, overburdening the capabilities of the UN system.
        I have made UN peacekeeping reform a key goal, working to reduce
    costs and improve efficiency, using UN peacekeeping when it will work
    and restraining it when the situation is not ripe. More needs to be done
    to make UN peacekeeping realize its potential and more effectively serve
    U.S. interests. It is in the U.S. interest to ensure that UN
    peacekeeping works and to improve it, because peacekeeping is one of the
    most effective forms of burdensharing available. Today, other nations
    pay more than two-thirds of the costs of peacekeeping and contribute
    almost 99 percent of the troops. Troops from seventy-seven nations are
    deployed throughout the world in the service of peace.
        The UN, once a forum for anti-American debate and propaganda, now is
    a vehicle for promoting the values we share. Throughout the world, the
    UN is promoting democracy and providing security for free elections. Its
    agencies are the chief instruments in the battle against proliferation
    of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction. UN forces have
    assumed roles that once had been performed by American troops--in
    Kuwait, Somalia, Rwanda and soon Haiti. They stand on battlements in
    places of great importance to us: on Israel's border, and Iraq's, in the
    Mediterranean between two NATO allies, in Europe on the border of the
    Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to deter a wider Balkan conflict,
    and in the Caribbean. The UN recently completed and closed successful
    operations in numerous places, including in our own backyard in Central
    America, Cambodia, Namibia and Mozambique.
        Were the UN not engaged in promoting peace and security, we would
    have to invent it. If we did so, it might not look precisely as it has
    now evolved. The U.S. assessment share would be less. It would be able
    to respond more rapidly to disasters and do so more economically and
    effectively. These and other improvements we seek can be achieved only
    if the U.S. stays engaged in the world and we remain a member of the
    United Nations in good standing.
        I look forward to working with the Congress, as we continue the task
    of reforming UN peacekeeping and the mission of building and
    consolidating world peace.
        The enclosed report is submitted pursuant to Section 407(d) of the
    FY 1994/1995 Foreign Relations Authorization Act (PL 103-236).
            Sincerely,

                                                          William J. Clinton

    Note: Identical letters were sent to Jesse Helms, chairman, and
    Claiborne Pell, ranking member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations;
    Mark O. Hatfield, chairman, and Robert C. Byrd, ranking member, Senate
    Committee on Appropriations;

    [[Page 202]]

    Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman, and Lee H. Hamilton, ranking member, House
    Committee on International Relations; and Robert L. Livingston,
    chairman, and David R. Obey, ranking member, House Committee on
    Appropriations.