    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [October 15, 1995]
    [Pages 1595-1600]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the University of Connecticut in Storrs
    October 15, 1995

        Thank you very much, first, Senator Dodd, for your dedication and
    your service, your friendship, and your wonderful, wonderful
    introduction. It's worth three more strokes the next time we play golf.
    [Laughter] Chairman Rome, President Hartley, Governor Rowland, Senator
    Lieberman, members of the congressional delegation, and especially your
    Congressman, Representative Gejdenson, thank you for your fine remarks
    here today. To the State officials who are here and the Senators and
    former Members of the United States Senate; to my friend Governor
    O'Neill and all others who have served this great State; the faculty,
    students, and friends of the University of Connecticut; and to the
    remarkable American treasure, Morton Gould, who composed that awesome
    piece of music we heard just before we started the program.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be here. As an old musician,
    I'd like to begin by congratulating the wind ensemble. They were quite
    wonderful in every way, I thought. As a near fanatic basketball fan, I
    am glad to be in a place where it can truly be said there is no other
    place in America where both men and women play basketball so well under
    the same roof. And at the risk of offending the Dodd family and all the
    other Irish who are here, I want to say that your new football coach,
    with his remarkable record, learned at his father's knee, not at Notre
    Dame but when he spent 9 years in my home State as a football coach.
    [Laughter] But congratulations on that great start for the University of
    Connecticut football team. That is a remarkable thing.
        When Governor Rowland made his fine remarks and talked about the
    Special Olympians turning their cameras around and turning their camera
    sighting into the telescope, I thought it was a remarkable story. And I
    was wondering if he could identify them and arrange to send them to
    Washington for a few weeks--[laughter]--so that we might clear vision
    down there as we make these decisions.
        Let me also say just one other thing by way of introduction. The
    State of Connecticut is really fortunate to have two such remarkable
    United States Senators, and I am very fortunate to have known both of
    them a long, long time before I became the President and a long, long
    time before either one of them thought that was even a remote
    possibility for the United States. [Laughter]
        I was a student at Yale Law School and a sometime volunteer when Joe
    Lieberman first ran for the State senate back in 1970. He still barely
    looks old enough to be a State senator. [Laughter] And I thank him for
    the remarkable blend of new ideas and common sense and old-fashioned
    values he brings to the Senate.
        And in many, many ways I have enjoyed a long and rich personal
    friendship with Chris Dodd. I can't add anything to what Senator
    Lieberman said, but I will say this: At a time when every person in
    public life talks about family values, it is quite one thing to talk and
    another thing to do. And I have been very moved by the family values of
    the Dodd family and what they have done together that has brought this
    magnificent day to pass. And I honor them all and especially my friend
    Senator Chris Dodd.
        I have been asked today to inaugurate the first Dodd center
    symposium on the topic of ``50 Years After Nuremberg.'' I am honored to
    do that. I was born just after World War II, and I grew up as a part of
    a generation of young students who were literally fascinated by every
    aspect of the Nuremberg trials and what their ramifications were and
    were not for every unfolding event in the world that was disturbing to
    human conscience.
        I wish that Tom Dodd could be here today to see this center take
    life, not only because of what his family and friends and this State

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    have done but because now, for all time, we will be able to study this
    great question as we strive to overcome human evil and human failing to
    be better.
        Senator Dodd, as we know, was a man of extraordinary breadth and
    depth, who was passionate about civil rights three decades before the
    civil rights movement changed the face of our Nation; who fought to
    provide the young people of America with an education and a decent job,
    a fight that is never-ending; who understood then the menace of violence
    and guns and drugs on the streets of our cities. And if only others had
    joined him firmly then, think what we might have avoided today.
        But most important, we look today at his experience at Nuremberg as
    a prosecutor, an experience that compelled him for the rest of his life
    to stand up for freedom and human dignity all around the world. He made
    a great deal of difference. And now, because his spirit lives on in the
    Dodd center, he will be able to make a difference forever.
        A few moments ago, in the powerful documentary we watched on
    Nuremberg, our chief prosecutor, Mr. Justice Jackson's words spoke to us
    across three decades: ``The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish
    have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that
    civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot
    survive their being repeated.''
        At Nuremberg, the international community declared that those
    responsible for crimes against humanity will be held accountable without
    the usual defenses afforded to people in times of war. The very
    existence of the Tribunal was a triumph for justice and for humanity and
    for the proposition that there must be limits even in wartime. Flush
    with victory, outraged by the evil of the Nazi death camps, the Allies
    easily could have simply lashed out in revenge. But the terrible
    struggle of World War II was a struggle for the very soul of humankind.
    To deny its oppressors the rights they had stripped from their victims
    would have been to win the war but to lose the larger struggle. The
    Allies understood that the only answer to inhumanity is justice. And as
    Senator Dodd said, three of the defendants were actually acquitted, even
    in that tumultuous, passionate environment.
        In the years since Nuremberg, the hope that convicting those guilty
    of making aggressive war would deter future wars and prevent future
    crimes against humanity, including genocide, frankly, has gone
    unfulfilled too often. From 1945 until the present day, wars between and
    within nations, including practices which were found to be illegal at
    Nuremberg, have cost more than 20 million lives. The wrongs Justice
    Jackson hoped Nuremberg would end have not been repeated on the scale of
    Nazi Germany, in the way that they did it, but they have been repeated
    and repeated on a scale that still staggers the imagination.
        Still, Nuremberg was a crucial first step. It rendered a clear
    verdict on atrocities. It placed human rights on a higher ground. It set
    a timeless precedent by stripping away convenient excuses for abominable
    conduct. Now it falls to our generation to make good on its promise, to
    put into practice the principle that those who violate universal human
    rights must be called to account for those actions.
        This mission demands the abiding commitment of all people. And like
    many of the other challenges of our time, it requires the power of our
    Nation's example and the strength of our leadership, first, because
    America was founded on the proposition that all God's children have the
    right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are values
    that define us as a nation, but they are not unique to our experience.
    All over the world, from Russia to South Africa, from Poland to
    Cambodia, people have been willing to fight and to die for them.
        Second, we have to do it because, while fascism and communism are
    dead or discredited, the forces of hatred and intolerance live on as
    they will for as long as human beings are permitted to exist on this
    planet Earth. Today, it is ethnic violence, religious strife, terrorism.
    These threats confront our generation in a way that still would spread
    darkness over light, disintegration over integration, chaos over
    community. Our purpose is to fight them, to defeat them, to support and
    sustain the powerful worldwide aspirations of democracy, dignity, and
    freedom.
        And finally, we must do it because, in the aftermath of the cold
    war, we are the world's only superpower. We have to do it because while
    we seek to do everything we possibly can in the world in cooperation
    with other nations, they find it difficult to proceed in cooperation if
    we are not there as a partner and very often as a leader.
        With our purpose and with our position comes the responsibility to
    help shine the light

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    of justice on those who would deny to others their most basic human
    rights. We have an obligation to carry forward the lessons of Nuremberg.
    That is why we strongly support the United Nations War Crimes Tribunals
    for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.
        The goals of these tribunals are straightforward: to punish those
    responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity; to
    deter future such crimes; and to help nations that were torn apart by
    violence begin the process of healing and reconciliation.
        The tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has made excellent progress.
    It has collected volumes of evidence of atrocities, including the
    establishment of death camps, mass executions, and systematic campaigns
    of rape and terror. This evidence is the basis for the indictments the
    tribunal already has issued against 43 separate individuals. And this
    week, 10 witnesses gave dramatic, compelling testimony against one of
    the indictees in a public proceeding. These indictments are not
    negotiable. Those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
    genocide must be brought to justice. They must be tried and, if found
    guilty, they must be held accountable. Some people are concerned that
    pursuing peace in Bosnia and prosecuting war criminals are incompatible
    goals. But I believe they are wrong. There must be peace for justice to
    prevail, but there must be justice when peace prevails.
        In recent weeks, the combination of American leadership, NATO's
    resolve, the international community's diplomatic determination: these
    elements have brought us closer to a settlement in Bosnia than at any
    time since the war began there 4 years ago.
        So let me repeat again what I have said consistently for over 2
    years: If and when the parties do make peace, the United States, through
    NATO, must help to secure it. Only NATO can strongly and effectively
    implement a settlement. And the United States, as NATO's leader, must do
    its part and join our troops to those of our allies in such an
    operation. If you were moved by the film we saw and you believe that it
    carries lessons for the present day and you accept the fact that not
    only our values but our position as the world's only superpower impose
    upon us an obligation to carry through, then the conclusion is
    inevitable: We must help to secure a peace if a peace can be reached in
    Bosnia. We will not send our troops into combat. We will not ask them to
    keep a peace that cannot be maintained. But we must use our power to
    secure a peace and to implement the agreement.
        We have an opportunity and a responsibility to help resolve this,
    the most difficult security challenge in the heart of Europe since World
    War II. When His Holiness the Pope was here just a few days ago, we
    spent a little over a half an hour alone, and we talked of many things.
    But in the end, he said, ``Mr. President, I am not a young man. I have a
    long memory. This century began with a war in Sarajevo. We must not let
    this century end with a war in Sarajevo.''
        Even if a peace agreement is reached, and I hope that we can do
    that, no peace will endure for long without justice. For only justice
    can break finally the cycle of violence and retribution that fuels war
    and crimes against humanity. Only justice can lift the burden of
    collective guilt. It weighs upon a society where unspeakable acts of
    destruction have occurred. Only justice can assign responsibility to the
    guilty and allow everyone else to get on with the hard work of
    rebuilding and reconciliation. So as the United States leads the
    international effort to forge a lasting peace in Bosnia, the War Crimes
    Tribunal must carry on its work to find justice.
        The United States is contributing more than $16 million in funds and
    services to that tribunal and to the one regarding Rwanda. We have 20
    prosecutors, investigators, and other personnel on the staffs. And at
    the United Nations, we have led the effort to secure adequate funding
    for these tribunals. And we continue to press others to make voluntary
    contributions. We do this because we believe doing it is part of acting
    on the lessons that Senator Dodd and others taught us at Nuremberg.
        By successfully prosecuting war criminals in the former Yugoslavia
    and Rwanda, we can send a strong signal to those who would use the cover
    of war to commit terrible atrocities that they cannot escape the
    consequences of such actions. And a signal will come across even more
    loudly and clearly if nations all around the world who value freedom and
    tolerance establish a permanent international court to prosecute, with
    the support of the United Nations Security Council, serious violations
    of humanitarian law. This, it seems to me, would be the ultimate tribute
    to the people who did such important work at Nuremberg, a permanent
    international court to

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    prosecute such violations. And we are working today at the United
    Nations to see whether it can be done.
        But my fellow Americans and my fellow citizens of the world, let me
    also say that our commitment to punish these crimes against humanity
    must be matched by our commitment to prevent them in the first place. As
    we work to support these tribunals, let's not forget what our ultimate
    goal is. Our ultimate goal must be to render them completely obsolete
    because such things no longer occur.
        Accountability is a powerful deterrent, but it isn't enough. It
    doesn't get to the root cause of such atrocities. Only a profound change
    in the nature of societies can begin to reach the heart of the matter.
    And I believe the basis of that profound change is democracy.
        Democracy is the best guarantor of human rights--not a perfect one,
    to be sure; you can see that in the history of the United States--but it
    is still the system that demands respect for the individual, and it
    requires responsibility from the individual to thrive. Democracy cannot
    eliminate all violations of human rights or outlaw human frailty, nor
    does promoting democracy relieve us of the obligation to press others
    who do not operate democracies to respect human rights. But more than
    any other system of government we know, democracy protects those rights,
    defends the victims of their abuse, punishes the perpetrators, and
    prevents a downward spiral of revenge.
        So promoting democracy does more than advance our ideals. It
    reinforces our interests. Where the rule of law prevails, where
    governments are held accountable, where ideas and information flow
    freely, economic development and political stability are more likely to
    take hold and human rights are more likely to thrive. History teaches us
    that democracies are less likely to go to war, less likely to traffic in
    terrorism and more likely to stand against the forces of hatred and
    destruction, more likely to become good partners in diplomacy and trade.
    So promoting democracy and defending human rights is good for the world
    and good for America.
        These aims have always had a powerful advocate in Senator Chris
    Dodd, who has defended the vulnerable and championed democracy,
    especially here in our own hemisphere, as has his brother, Tom, first as
    a distinguished academic at our common alma mater, Georgetown, and then
    as America's Ambassador to Uruguay. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the
    Dominican Republic, Senator Dodd helped some of our poorest neighbors to
    build homes for their families. Twenty-five years later, when a brutal
    dictatorship overthrew the legitimate government of Haiti, murdering,
    mutilating, and raping thousands and causing tens of thousands more to
    flee in fear, Chris Dodd was the conscience of the Senate on Haiti. He
    urged America and the world to take action.
        On this very day one year ago, an American-led multinational force
    returned the duly elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to
    his country. The anniversary we celebrate today was the culmination of a
    3-year effort by the United States and the international community to
    remove the dictators and restore democracy. Because we backed diplomacy
    with the force of our military, the dictators finally did step down. And
    Haiti's democrats stepped back into their rightful place.
        Our actions ended a reign of terror that did violence not only to
    innocent Haitians but to the values and the principles of the civilized
    world. We renewed hope in Haiti's future where once there was only
    despair. We upheld the reliability of our own commitments and the
    commitments that others make to us. We sent a powerful message to the
    would-be despots in the region: Democracy in the Americas cannot be
    overthrown with impunity.
        We have seen extraordinary progress in this year. The democratic
    government has been restored. Human rights are its purpose, not its
    disgrace. Violence has subsided, though not ended altogether. Peaceful
    elections have occurred. Reform is underway. A new civilian police force
    has already more than 1,000 officers on the street. A growing private
    sector is beginning to generate jobs and opportunity. After so much
    blood and terror, the people of Haiti have resumed their long journey to
    security and prosperity with dignity.
        There is a lot of work to do. Haiti is still the poorest nation in
    our hemisphere, and that is a breeding ground for the things we all come
    here to condemn today. Its democratic institutions are fragile, and all
    those years of vicious oppression have left scars and some still
    thirsting for revenge.
        For reform to take root and to endure, trust must be fully
    established not only between the Government and the people but among the
    people of Haiti themselves. President Aristide un-

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    derstands that when he says, no to violence, yes to justice; no to
    vengeance, yes to reconciliation.
        This is very important. Assigning individual responsibilities for
    crimes of the past is also important there. Haiti now has a national
    commission for truth and justice, launching investigations of past human
    rights abuses. And with our support, Haiti is improving the
    effectiveness, accessibility, and accountability of its own justice
    system, again, to prevent future violations as well as to punish those
    which occur.
        The people of Haiti know it's up to them to safeguard their freedom.
    But we know, as President Kennedy said, that democracy is never a final
    achievement. And just as the American people, after 200 years, are
    continually struggling to perfect our own democracy, we must and we will
    stand with the people of Haiti as they struggle to build their own.
    Indeed, the Vice President is just today in Haiti celebrating the one-
    year anniversary.
        And let me say one final thing about this. I thank Senator Dodd and
    Ambassador Dodd for their concern with freedom, democracy, and getting
    rid of the horrible human rights abuses that have occurred in the past
    throughout the Americas. The First Lady is in South America today--or
    she would be here with me--partly because of the path that has been
    blazed by the Dodd family in this generation to stand up for democracy,
    so that every single country of the Americas, save one, now has a
    democratically elected leader. And human rights abuses and the kinds of
    crimes that Senator Thomas Dodd stood up against at Nuremberg are
    dramatically, dramatically reduced because of that process and this
    family's leadership.
        In closing, let me say that, for all of the work we might do through
    tribunals to bring the guilty to account, it is our daily commitment to
    the ideals of human dignity, democracy, and peace that has been and will
    continue to be the source of our strength in the world and our capacity
    to work with others to prevent such terrible things from occurring in
    the first place.
        We will continue to defend the values we believe make life worth
    living. We will continue to defend the proposition that all people,
    without regard to their nationality, their race, their ethnic group,
    their religion, their gender, should have the chance to live free,
    should have the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.
    For too long, all across the globe, women and their children, in
    particular, were denied these human rights. Those were the rights for
    which the First Lady spoke so forcefully in China at the women's
    conference and for which the United States will work hard in the years
    ahead.
        Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a moment of great hope and
    possibility. The capacity of the United States to lead has been
    energized by our ability to succeed economically in the global economy
    and by the efforts we are making to come to grips with our own problems
    here at home. But I leave you with this thought that was referred to by
    the Governor in his fine remarks and that the president of this
    University has emphasized in his comments today.
        It is important that we be able to act upon our values. And what
    enables us to do it is our success as a nation, our strength as a
    people, the fact that people can see that if you live as we say we
    should live, that people can work together across racial and ethnic and
    other divides to create one from many, as our motto says, and to do
    well.
        Therefore, we should in the weeks ahead in Washington find a way to
    come together across our political divide to balance the budget after
    the deficit has taken such a toll on our economy over the last dozen
    years. But I ask you to remember this: We must do it in a way that is
    consistent with our values and with our ability to live by and implement
    and support those values here at home and all around the world.
        Therefore, if our goal is to preserve our ideals and our dreams and
    our leadership and to extend them to all Americans, when we balance the
    budget we must not turn our backs on our obligation to give all
    Americans a chance to get an education, including a college education;
    to honor our fathers and our mothers in terms of how we treat their
    legitimate needs which they have earned the right to have addressed,
    including their health care needs; and not to forget the poor children,
    even though it is unfashionable to talk about poverty in this world
    today. They will be the adults of this country someday.
        We are strong because we honor each other across the generations. We
    are strong when we reach across the racial and ethnic divides. We are
    strong when we continue to invest in education and the technology which
    opens all the mysterious doors of the future. We are strong when we
    preserve the environment that God

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    gave us here at home and around our increasingly interconnected planet.
    We are strong when we continue to determine to lead the world.
        These are the things which make it possible for us to meet here in
    Connecticut today and advocate the responsibility of the United States
    to lead in the protection of human rights around the world and the
    prevention of future horrendous circumstances such as those that Senator
    Dodd had to address at Nuremberg.
        So I ask you to remember those lessons as well. If we have an
    obligation to stand up for what is right, to advance what is right, to
    lift up human potential, we must be able to fulfill that obligation.
        If there is one last lesson of this day, I believe it should be that
    prosperity for the United States is not the most important thing and not
    an end in itself. We should seek it only, only, as a means to enhance
    the human spirit, to enhance human dignity, to enhance the ability of
    every person in our country and those whom we have the means to help
    around the world to become the people God meant for them to be. If we
    can remember that, then we can be faithful to the generation that won
    World War II, to the outstanding leaders which established the important
    precedents at Nuremberg, and to the mission and the spirit of the Dodd
    center.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:18 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion.