    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [October 25, 1995]
    [Pages 1682-1685]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1682]]

    Remarks at the Harry S. Truman Library Institute Legacy of Leadership
    Dinner
    October 25, 1995

        Thank you very much, Clifton, for that very fine introduction, and I
    hope that what you said is true about both of us. President Ford,
    President Carter, thank you for your service to our Nation and for what
    you said and for the work you have done to continue America's mission
    since you have left office; the work you have done in supporting our
    common efforts in expanding trade; and for that very unusual trip
    President Carter took to Haiti not very long ago, which has now given
    them one year of freedom and democracy. Thank you, sir, for that.
        Vice President Gore; General and Mrs. Dawson; my good friend Lindy
    Boggs; Mr. and Mrs. Hackman; Senator and Mrs. Nunn; Governor and Mrs.
    Carlin; Mr. Symington; David and Rosalee McCullough; Congresswoman
    McCarthy; the other Members of Congress who are here. I always love to
    be at events honoring Harry Truman because I come from a family that was
    for him when he was alive. [Laughter]
        I loved hearing the story about the--that President Ford told about
    the tour President Truman gave of the White House. You know, President
    Truman oversaw the last great renovation of the White House, although
    many fine things have been done within the house by subsequent
    Presidents and their wives. And he gave us the Truman Balcony, and fated
    almost as much heat for that as he did some of the more famous things he
    did. Every first family since then has thanked their lucky stars for
    Harry Truman's persistence in hanging on to the Truman Balcony.
        It was my great honor, along with the First Lady, who had the
    privilege of hosting many of you at the White House today, to have Mr.
    Daniel's parents come to dinner. Margaret Truman Daniel was uncommonly
    kind to my wife and to my daughter during the course of the '92 campaign
    and on occasion thereafter. And we wanted to have them for dinner. And
    as we were having dinner in the Family Dining Room upstairs, which used
    to be the room in which Margaret Truman had her piano and did her
    practicing--it was her room--and President and Mrs. Kennedy converted it
    into the Family Dining Room, and for the first time in 160 years, the
    First Family no longer had to go downstairs to dinner at night. And I
    thought this was quite a great thing, you know, and so I thought we
    should have dinner in this room with the beautiful Revolutionary
    wallpaper that Mrs. Kennedy put up.
        And we got sort of into the dinner. We were having a wonderful
    conversation; I was marveling at how much Margaret Truman reminded me of
    her father. And so, as the conversation warmed, I said, ``Tell me,
    Margaret, how do you like this Family Dining Room?'' And she got a very
    stern look in her face, and she said, ``Well, Mr. President, I like
    you.'' But she said, ``You know, I just don't think people should eat on
    the same floor they sleep.'' [Laughter] And I thought to myself, the
    Trumans are still speaking their mind. [Laughter] And thank God for
    that.
        I have been asked to talk about the meaning of Harry Truman's legacy
    for today and tomorrow. And because of the meetings that I have just had
    at the United Nations and the work that we are doing 50 years after its
    beginning, I thought it might be worth my sharing with you a few
    thoughts about Harry Truman's legacy and what it means for today and
    tomorrow.
        Every American President, including my two distinguished
    predecessors who spoke here tonight, has followed in Harry Truman's
    footsteps in carrying forward America's leadership in the world. This
    tradition of sustained American leadership and involvement has been so
    successful and has been so consistently maintained by Democratic and
    Republican Presidents alike that some of us forget what a bold departure
    it was.
        Just before I came here tonight I was with Prime Minister Rabin at
    another meeting talking about peace in the Middle East. Harry Truman was
    the first world leader to recognize the State of Israel. And his
    commitment to giving us the capacity to lead and work for peace started
    a single silver thread that runs right through the terrific
    accomplishments of President Carter and all of the things which have
    been done since. But we forget what a bold departure it was. The Truman
    doctrine, the Marshall plan, the

    [[Page 1683]]

    NATO alliance, each was a step unlike anything before.
        Indeed, NATO, which President Truman rightly considered one of his
    finest achievements, was our very first peacetime alliance ever. We
    never had a military alliance in peacetime before NATO. This decisive
    change grew out of the belief that was shared by General Marshall,
    Senator Vandenberg, and Dean Acheson and so many others that we could
    never again remain apart from the world. We had, after all, isolated
    ourselves after the First World War, and because of that, we had to
    fight another. Harry Truman was determined that would not happen again.
    And he had to face, almost immediately, the chilling prospect of the
    cold war and to make all of the decisions which set in motion the
    policies which enabled, ultimately, freedom to prevail in that war.
        He had to do it with a nation that was weary from war and weary from
    engagement, where people were longing to just focus on the little
    everyday things of life that mean the most to most of us. But because he
    did it, we just celebrated 50 years of the United Nations. No more world
    war, no nuclear device ever dropped again, and we see the movement for
    peace and freedom and democracy all over the world.
        What are we going to do to build on his achievement? What do we have
    to do to secure a peace for the next century? Freedom's new gains, I
    believe, make it possible for us to help to build a Europe that is
    democratic, that is peaceful, and that, for the first time since nation-
    states appeared on that continent, is undivided.
        We can build a Europe committed to freedom, democracy, and
    prosperity, genuinely secure throughout the continent and allied with
    other like-minded people throughout the world for the first time ever.
    And I am committed to doing what we can to build that kind of Europe
    based on three principles: First, to support democracy in Europe's newly
    free nations; second, to work to increase economic vitality in Europe
    with America and other partners through open markets and expanded trade
    and to help the former Communist countries complete their transition to
    market economies, a move that will strengthen democracy there and help
    to block the advance of ultranationalism and ethnic hatred; and finally,
    we're building the transatlantic community of tomorrow by deepening, not
    withdrawing, from our security cooperation.
        Today, with the overarching threat of communism gone, the faces of
    hatred and intolerance are still there with different faces: ethnic and
    religious conflicts, organized crime and drug dealing, state-sponsored
    terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction. America cannot
    insulate itself from these threats any more than they could insulate
    themselves after World War II. Indeed, we have less option to do so
    because the world is becoming a global village.
        By joining with our allies and embracing others who share our
    values, we can't insulate ourselves from these threats, but we can sure
    create a better defense. NATO's success gives us proof of what we can do
    when we work together. NATO binds the Western democracies in a common
    purpose with shared values. And I strongly believe that NATO does not
    depend upon an ever-present enemy to maintain its unity or its
    usefulness.
        The alliance strengthens all of its members from within and defends
    them from threats without. If you just compare the stability, the
    economic strength, the harmony in Western Europe today with the
    conditions that existed just a few decades ago in President Truman's
    time, you can see that. The alliance has brought former foes together,
    strengthened democracy, and along with the Marshall plan, it sheltered
    fragile economies and got them going again. It gave countries confidence
    to look past their ancient hatreds. It gave them the safety to sow the
    prosperity they enjoy today.
        By establishing NATO, of course, America also did something even
    more important from our point of view. We established the security that
    we require to flourish and to grow. Now we have to build upon President
    Truman's accomplishments. He said when he announced the Truman doctrine,
    ``The world is not static. The status quo is not sacred. We have to
    adapt NATO, and I believe we should open NATO's doors to new members.''
    The end of the cold war cannot mean the end of NATO, and it cannot mean
    a NATO frozen in the past, because there is no other cornerstone for an
    integrated, secure, and stable Europe for the future.
        NATO's success has involved promoting security interests, advancing
    values, supporting democracy and economic opportunity. We have literally
    created a community of shared values and shared interests as well as an
    alliance for

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    the common defense. Now the new democracies of Central and Eastern
    Europe and the former Soviet Union want to be a part of enlarging the
    circle of common purpose and, in so doing, increasing our own security.
        That's why we established the Partnership For Peace. In less than 2
    years, we've brought 26 nations into a program to create confidence and
    friendship, former enemies now joining in field exercises throughout the
    year, building bonds together instead of battle plans against one
    another. This has been good for us and good for Europe.
        Now those nations in the region that maintain their democracies and
    continue to promote economic reform and behave responsibly should be
    able to become members of NATO. That will give them the confidence to
    consolidate their freedom and to build their economies and to make us
    more secure.
        NATO's completed a study of how it should bring on new members. We
    intend to move carefully and deliberately and openly and share the
    conclusions of that study with all of those who have joined us in the
    Partnership For Peace. But we have to move to the next phase in a
    steady, careful way, to consider who the new members should be and when
    they would be invited to join the alliance. Throughout this, I will
    engage with the Congress and the American people and seek the kind of
    bipartisan partnership that made Harry Truman's important work possible.
        Let me emphasize one important point: Bringing new members into this
    alliance will enhance, not undermine, the security of everyone in
    Europe, including Russia, Ukraine, the other former Soviet republics.
    We've assured Russia that NATO is as it has always been, a defensive
    alliance. Extending the zone of security and democracy in Europe can
    help to prevent new conflicts that have been building up, in many cases,
    for centuries. For Russia and all of her neighbors, this is a better
    path than the alternative.
        I also want you to know, as you saw from the laughing photograph
    with President Yeltsin, we are still building a positive relationship
    with Russia. Those of you familiar with the history of that great
    country know that its heroic effort to become a confident and stable
    democracy is one of the most significant developments of our time.
        One of our former colleagues, President Nixon, who is no longer with
    us, wrote me a letter about Russia a month to the day before he died,
    which I still have and reread from time to time, emphasizing the
    extraordinary historic significance of Russia's courageous reach for
    democracy and liberty.
        Russia, too, has a contribution to make in the new Europe, and we
    have offered them a strong alliance with NATO and working through the
    Partnership For Peace. Let me just tell you, that partnership is going
    to deepen. Tomorrow, United States and Russian armed forces will begin a
    peacekeeping exercise together at Fort Riley, Kansas, under the auspices
    of the Partnership For Peace. We want our relationships with them to be
    daily, comprehensive, routine. We want to go every step of the way to
    build confidence and security and a democratic Russia. But we don't
    think NATO's opening to the East and our relationship with Russia are
    mutually exclusive choices.
        I want to emphasize one other thing. NATO is at work for us right
    now, as we speak, demonstrating in Bosnia how vital it is to securing
    the peace in Europe. The efforts of our negotiators, the military
    changes on the ground, and NATO's air strikes have brought these parties
    to the negotiating table and to an agreement on the basic principles of
    a settlement and a nationwide cease-fire.
        Next week, in an historic meeting, the Presidents of Bosnia,
    Croatia, and Serbia will travel here to Dayton, Ohio, to resolve the
    remaining issues. The political settlement that is taking shape will
    preserve Bosnia as a single state and provide for a fair territorial
    compromise. It will commit the parties to hold free elections, establish
    democratic institutions, and respect human rights.
        There are many people who have played a role in bringing this
    process this far. I want to thank one of them tonight for his
    extraordinary efforts, President Carter. Thank you so much for what you
    have done.
        I want to say to all of you, there is no guarantee of peace, but it
    is possible in large measure because of NATO. And let me ask you one
    final thing. If the peace is negotiated, NATO must be prepared to help
    implement the agreement. There will be no peace without an international
    military presence in Bosnia, a presence that must be credible. NATO is
    indispensable

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    to this to give the parties the reassurance they need to make peace.
        The question I have is this: If Harry Truman were President, would
    he expect the United States as the leader of NATO to be a part of the
    force in Bosnia? I think you know what the answer is. The answer is,
    yes. And so must we.
        My fellow Americans, make no mistake about this: If we're not there,
    many of our partners will reconsider their commitments; if we're not
    there, America will sacrifice its leadership in NATO; if we're not
    there, we will be making a sad mistake. I am determined that we will be
    part of this NATO mission.
        I am working with Congress, engaging in an important dialog. I met
    not very long ago with a bipartisan group of leaders, and I want to say
    a special word of thanks to Senator Nunn for his remarkable contribution
    to that meeting and for his remarkable contributions to our country,
    which we will all miss when he is gone.
        My fellow Americans, if you want 4 years of bloody conflict to end,
    you have to support the United States being involved with NATO in
    enforcing the peace agreement. We have not sent troops into battle. We
    have not taken sides. We have not been a part of the UNPROFOR mission on
    the ground. But we must do this if you want your country and NATO to be
    effective in our time as it was in President Truman's vision and in his
    time.
        Let me also say again, if we don't do this, the consequences for our
    country could be grave, indeed. This is the most serious conflict on the
    continent of Europe since World War II. NATO must help to end it. If we
    fail to secure this peace, how can we achieve an integrated, peaceful,
    and united Europe? If we fail to secure this peace, our success around
    the world and much of our success at home, which has come from American
    leadership, will be weakened. If we fail to secure this peace, the
    conflict in the former Yugoslavia could spread to other nations and
    involve our sons and daughters in a conflict in Europe.
        Let me say in closing that just a few days ago, we were fortunate to
    have a visit in the United States from His Holiness John Paul II. And I
    spent about a half an hour with him alone, and he started with the most
    unusual conversation I've ever had with him or, in some ways, with any
    other world leader. He said, ``I want to talk about the world, and I
    want to know what you think.'' I said, ``The world?'' He said, ``Yes,
    the whole deal.'' I said, ``Well, where shall I start?'' He said,
    ``Start in Bosnia.'' So we talked about Bosnia. Then we went around the
    world. At the end he said, ``You know, I am not a young man. I have
    lived through most of this century. The 20th century began with a war in
    Sarajevo. Mr. President, you must not let the 20th century end with a
    war in Sarajevo.''
        I ask you to think of this, my fellow Americans, that first war in
    Sarajevo, that was Harry Truman's war. That's the war that he joined up
    in even though he was old enough and his eyesight was bad enough for him
    to get out of it. That's the war he showed people the kind of leadership
    capacity he had. And our failures after that war led Franklin Roosevelt
    into another war, led Harry Truman to end that war with a set of
    difficult painful decisions, including dropping the atomic bomb, and led
    him to determine that it would never happen again. That's why he did all
    the things we celebrate tonight.
        If he were here he would say, ``If you want to really honor me,
    prepare for the future as I did.''
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:35 p.m. in the Main Hall at the National
    Building Museum. In his remarks, he referred to Clifton Truman Daniel,
    President Truman's grandson; Maj. Gen. Donald S. Dawson, USAF (Ret.),
    president, Harry S. Truman Library Institute for National and
    International Affairs, and his wife, Jenny; Lindy Boggs, dinner chair;
    Larry Hackman, Director, Harry S. Truman Library, and his wife, Sandi;
    Senator Sam Nunn and his wife, Colleen; Archivist of the United States
    John W. Carlin and his wife, Diana; master of ceremonies James
    Symington; and author and historian David McCullough and his wife,
    Rosalee.