    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [October 12, 1995]
    [Pages 1583-1585]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Celebration of the Anniversary of the Restoration of
    Democracy in Haiti
    October 12, 1995

        Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary General. This marks the second
    time in 2 days I have been here. I promise I won't come back tomorrow
    and interrupt your lives. [Laughter] Madam Foreign Minister, to the
    distinguished Prime Minister of St. Kitts and others who are here who
    were part of that remarkable coalition that restored democracy to Haiti
    a year ago. Let me say I was looking out at this crowd tonight, and when
    my friend of 25 years, Taylor Branch, told me that this event was going
    to come to pass, I redid my schedule just so I could come by here and
    thank so many of you for what you did. I want to thank my longtime
    friend Bill Gray for agreeing to be pressed back into public service for
    the work that he did.
        I want to thank all the people in the United States who cared about
    Haiti, who wrote me letters and called me on the phone and came to see
    me about it and talked to me about what was at stake. Randall Robinson
    even went on a diet for Haiti. [Laughter] Jonathan Demme wrote me
    letters that were even more eloquent than the films that he makes.
    [Laughter] And many others did as well. I thank you all for your
    concern.
        I want to thank our partners in the hemisphere. When the United
    States decided that if necessary we would use force to remove the
    military regime and to restore President Aristide and democracy, I was
    so determined that no one would think we were trying to revive any
    hemispheric imperialism. I have worked very hard to establish a new
    sense of partnership, a new sense of common bond, a new sense of common
    mission with all the nations of the Caribbean, of Central and South
    America.
        The First Lady would like to be here tonight. She is in Nicaragua as
    we speak, on her way to a four-nation tour of Latin America. We care
    deeply about how other people who share our neighborhoods feel about the
    United States and that they understand that we believe we have a common
    destiny.
        And so I don't think this operation ever would have worked as it
    should have worked had it not been for all the other countries who were
    willing to participate with us. Even though we had a United Nations
    mandate, what really made it go was all of our neighbors participating,
    sending their soldiers, sending their police monitors, participating,
    standing up for it. It made an enormous difference.
        I want to say a special word of thanks to all the people within our
    administration who supported my action. And needless to say, it was
    hotly debated. And all the political polls said it was a dumb thing to
    do. And I said, well, I do a lot of things that the polls--[laughter].
    But it seemed to be the right thing to do. Two of them are here, the
    Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, and Sandy Berger. And people
    that aren't here, Tony Lake and the Vice President, were all very
    strongly in support of the action that our administration took. And I
    appreciate that very much.
        And finally let me say to General Fisher and to everyone who was
    involved first in the multinational force and then in the United Nations
    force, I am very proud and grateful for the performance of the United
    States military in Haiti. They made all Americans proud. And they made
    this whole thing possible, and we thank you, too, sir.
        One of the best things that's happened to me in the last year is a
    few months after the restoration of President Aristide, one of the
    military officers who was involved in the operation--and I don't want to
    embarrass him, so I won't say his name--but I was having a rather

    [[Page 1585]]

    interesting conversation with him, and he looked at me, and he said,
    ``You know, Mr. President, when you did this, I just didn't know. But
    you know, that was a good thing we did. It was the right thing to do.''
    And I was--coming from a person of few words and high performance, I
    treasured that.
        I thank Brian Atwood and the work that AID is doing in Haiti. And
    all of you should relish this celebration for all of the work that all
    of you did and the contributions you made, all of the groups and the
    individuals. Tonight I hope you will think about what we all have to do
    to make sure that this extraordinary endeavor succeeds.
        The United States has worked hard in the last year to help to
    establish an electoral process which is proceeding. We have worked hard
    to try to establish a system of law and order which is making progress.
    But in the end, the Foreign Minister and all of the people in her
    government and President Aristide have to be able to prove that freedom
    and democracy can bring the benefits that we know it can bring.
        And Haiti was plundered for a very long time. It has been
    environmentally ravaged. When I went back to Haiti for the first time
    since my wife and I went there in December of 1975, I was literally
    shocked to see the deterioration of the environment, the topsoil running
    thin, and all of the things that had happened.
        We all have a lot of work to do there. And in the end, we have to
    make it possible for the people of Haiti who are willing to work and
    learn and grow to compose a life, to stabilize their families, to live
    out their dreams. And we have a lot more work to do there.
        So I ask you to celebrate this extraordinary evening by reaffirming
    your determination to help the people who live there keep their
    democracy alive and bring its benefits to ordinary citizens, to infuse
    new investment, to create new jobs, to develop a sustainable economic
    program while restoring the environment, to do all those things that
    they might have done for themselves had they had a longer period of time
    free of oppression.
        I must say that when I went to Haiti, I was very moved by what I
    saw, by the spirit of the people and the openness to the possibilities
    of the future. But we all know that the future is not free of
    difficulties.
        So if you are still today as firmly convinced as you were a year ago
    that this is the right thing to do, if you feel as deeply proud today as
    you did a year ago, then you have to make your convictions good by
    making sure that we do not fail in this common endeavor, that democracy
    ultimately triumphs, that freedom is ultimately the victor, and that
    there is some prosperity for those good people who have suffered too
    long, borne too much, and now have to have our continued partnership to
    build the kind of future that all of us want for ourselves, our
    families, and our children. I know we can do it but we must get about
    it, and we must stay with it until the job is done.
        Thank you, good luck, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:10 p.m. at the Organization of American
    States. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary General Cesar Gavirio
    of the Organization of American States; Foreign Minister Claudette
    Werleigh of Haiti; Prime Minister Kennedy Simmonds of St. Kitts and
    Nevis; author Taylor Branch; Special Adviser on Haiti William H. Gray
    III; Randall Robinson, executive director, TransAfrica Forum; movie
    director Jonathan Demme; President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti; and
    Maj. Gen. George A. Fisher, USA, Commander, 25th Infantry Division.