    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [September 23, 1995]
    [Pages 1464-1465]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    September 23, 1995

        Good morning. I want to talk to you today about the prospects for
    peace in Bosnia. Over the past weeks, American leadership and the
    determination demonstrated by NATO and the United Nations have helped to
    bring Bosnia closer to peace than at any time since the war began there
    4 years ago. Let me be clear: There are many tough obstacles still to
    overcome, but we are determined to press forward for a lasting peaceful
    settlement.
        At the end of the cold war, Serbian nationalism forced the breakup
    of Yugoslavia. An ugly and dangerous war broke out in the heart of
    Europe, risking an even wider conflict in the Balkans which could have
    drawn the United States and many other countries in. Bosnia, a land in
    which Muslims, Serbs, and Croats had lived together peacefully for
    centuries, was literally torn apart.
        As President, I have worked to do everything in our power to support
    the search for peace in Bosnia, to stop the conflict from spreading
    beyond its borders, and to ease the terrible suffering of the Bosnian
    people. We can't force peace on the parties; only they themselves can
    make it. That's why I have refused to let American ground troops become
    combatants in Bosnia. But we can press the parties to resolve their
    differences at the bargaining table and not on the battlefield. We will
    spare no effort to find a peaceful solution, and we will work through
    NATO to implement a settlement once the parties reach it.
        Working closely with our partners from Europe and Russia, last year
    we proposed a peace plan that would preserve Bosnia as a state with
    Bosnia's Muslims and Croats holding 51 percent of the land and 49
    percent going to the Bosnian Serbs. The Muslims and the Croats accepted
    our plan. But the Bosnian Serbs did not. Instead, they laid siege to
    Sarajevo and the other U.N.-declared safe areas, denying food, denying
    medicine, denying supplies to innocent civilians. They continued to make
    war. They refused to make peace.
        This July, as the Serbs continue their assaults against the safe
    areas, America pressed NATO and the U.N. to take a tougher stand, and
    our allies agreed. When a Bosnian Serb shell slaughtered 38 people in
    Sarajevo just 3 weeks ago, we insisted that NATO and the U.N. make good
    on their commitment to protect Sarajevo and the other safe areas from
    further attacks. We demanded that the Serbs stop offensive actions
    against the safe areas, withdraw their heavy weapons from around
    Sarajevo, and allow road and air access to the city. When they refused,
    NATO began heavy and continuous air strikes against Bosnian Serb
    military targets.
        These NATO air strikes, many, many of them flown by courageous
    American pilots and crews, convinced the Bosnian Serbs to comply with
    our demands. They stopped shelling Sarajevo. They moved their heavy
    weapons away from Sarajevo. They opened the roads and the airports to
    convoys carrying food and medicine and other supplies.
        I salute our pilots and crews and their NATO colleagues. Because
    they did their job so well, today the people of Sarajevo can walk the
    streets of their city more free from fear than at any time in many
    months. And I want to make absolutely clear that if the Bosnian Serbs
    strike again

    [[Page 1465]]

    at Sarajevo or the other safe areas, NATO's air strikes will resume.
        Over the past weeks I also ordered our negotiators to step up their
    efforts to get the parties back to the peace negotiating table and to
    respond to shifting military circumstances in Bosnia where Croatian and
    Bosnian Government forces have made significant gains. The negotiators
    shuttled throughout the region, and they brought forth the Foreign
    Ministers of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia together in Geneva. Their hard
    work got the Serbs to agree to the principles of our peace plan. Thanks
    to the combination of military muscle and diplomatic determination,
    there is now a real chance for peace in Bosnia. We must seize it.
        I have instructed our negotiating team to go to New York on Tuesday
    to meet with the Foreign Ministers of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia and
    our allies to push the peace process forward. Then I've asked them to
    return to the region to continue their intensive shuttle diplomacy and
    to keep the parties focused on an overall settlement. As I have said,
    there's no guarantee that we can reach a settlement. There are still
    deep, deep divisions among the parties. But there has been genuine
    progress.
        What's happening today in Bosnia demonstrates once again the
    importance of American leadership around the world at the end of the
    cold war. Just think of the extraordinary achievements of the past year:
    democracy restored to Haiti, greater peace in the Middle East and in
    Northern Ireland, Russian nuclear weapons no longer aimed at our people,
    the indefinite extension of a nuclear nonproliferation treaty, real
    progress toward a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, North Korea's
    agreement to end its nuclear weapons program. Each one of these is a
    product of American leadership. In the new and changing world we live
    in, America is the one country that can nearly always make a difference.
        But if we want to continue to make a difference, if we want to
    continue to lead, we must have the resources that leadership requires. I
    intend to do everything in my power to make sure our military remains
    the best fighting force in the world and that our diplomats have the
    tools they need to help those who are taking risks for peace. We must
    not let our foreign policy and America's place in the world fall victim
    to partisan politics or petty fights. Every American, Democrats,
    Republicans, independents, all of us, should agree on the need for
    America to keep leading around the world.
        That is the lesson of the progress we're seeing in Bosnia. That's
    the lesson of the foreign policy actions we've taken over the last year,
    actions that have made the world a safer place and every American more
    secure.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note. The address was recorded at 1:35 p.m. on September 22 at the
    Tustin Officers' Club in Tustin, CA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on
    September 23.