[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[December 13, 1995]
[Pages 1886-1887]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Balkan Peace Process Following a Meeting With
Elie Wiesel and an Exchange With Reporters
December 13, 1995

    The President. Good morning. I have just had the pleasure of a 
meeting with Elie Wiesel to discuss our efforts to secure the peace in 
Bosnia. The citation on the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Elie Wiesel 9 
years ago describes him as a messenger to mankind. He is a passionate 
witness to humanity's capacity for the worst and a powerful example of 
humanity's capacity for the best. Throughout his life, he has been an 
advocate for peace and human dignity and the duty we owe to one another. 
And I'd like to ask him to say just a few words about the decisions that 
are before our country and the work of peace in Bosnia.
    Mr. Wiesel.  Mr. President, it is with a great sense of pride and 
pleasure that I came to support your decision. I believe it is right; I 
believe it is honorable. Two years ago or so, when we both spoke at the 
very important event, the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, I 
left my prepared remarks and appealed to you, to your humanity, which I 
know is profound, to do something, anything, to stop the killing, the 
bloodshed, the violence, the hatred, the massacre in former Yugoslavia.
    I know how concerned you were. I know you tried. You tried very 
hard, trying to influence the European nations, the allies, the United 
Nations. And what you are doing now will be remembered in history, 
because it is intervention on the highest level and in its most noble 
form.
    We in the United States represent a certain moral aspect of history. 
A great nation owes its greatness not only to its military power but 
also to its moral consciousness, awareness. What would future 
generations say about us, all of us here in this land, if we do nothing? 
After all, people were dying; people were killing each other day after 
day. They stopped, thanks to your leadership. I know of no other world 
figure today who has done so much in the field for foreign affairs as 
you have, Mr. President. To send American men and women to preserve the 
peace is an act of courage and of decency, and I use the word advisedly, 
it's an act of morality, and that is why I am here with you today, Mr. 
President.
    The President. Thank you very much. I'd like just to make, if I 
might, one or two other remarks. As all of you know, I will travel to 
Paris this evening to witness the signing of the peace agreement. After 
nearly 4 years of terrible destruction, Bosnia is at peace. We must not 
lose sight of that fact. This is an extraordinary achievement, and the 
question now is whether the peace will endure.
    Ultimately of course, that will have to be decided by the Bosnian 
people themselves. But they cannot have the opportunity to have peace 
take hold without American leadership. I believe our Nation has already 
made the difference between war and peace there. Now, I believe only the 
United States can make the difference between whether the peace takes 
hold, because the actions of all of our allies depend upon our working 
together.
    I hope that the Members of Congress will recognize that fundamental 
truth as they consider support for our troops and for the mission of 
peace in Bosnia. We have an obligation as we make this decision to 
remember that Bosnia's war involved a lot of innocent people. Snipers 
and shells turned schoolyards into graveyards. There were terrified 
faces of women and girls who were raped as an instrument of war. There 
were skeletal prisoners behind barbed wire fences in what can only be 
called concentration camps. There were defenseless men who were shot 
down into mass graves. Now we have a chance to end all that and to give 
Bosnia a chance at a better future.
    I think we should also not forget that the situation there has not 
always been hopeless; that's another thing I think that has colored this 
debate. The fact is that for generations, Bosnia was a place where 
people of different

[[Page 1887]]

traditions and faiths could, and did, live side by side in peace. Its 
people were joined by marriage, by language, by culture. One of the most 
heartbreaking things to me is to see refugees from Bosnia in our own 
country who comprise families that have Croatian and Serbian and Muslim 
roots within one family, being driven out of their country.
    We now can give that country a future back again, and I hope the 
Congress will vote to do it, and I believe America must lead the way in 
doing it. And I thank you, Elie Wiesel, for being a conscience of this 
terrible conflict for the last 4 years.
    Q. What do you think the chances are of getting support in Congress?
    The President. I don't know. We're working hard. We had another--I 
had another long meeting yesterday with the Members of the Senate. And I 
understand there's going to be a vote--there are a series of votes there 
sometime today. Then I think the House will have to determine what to do 
based on what the Senate does. That's--my instinct is that they have 
not--it's not clear to me where it's going, but we have worked very 
hard, and we will continue to work hard. And in the end I just can't 
believe that Congress won't support our troops in this mission. That's 
what I think will happen.
    Q. Mr. President, when you sit down with the three Balkan leaders 
tomorrow, you will come to them as the leader of a nation that is 
divided about whether to support them. What will you tell them?
    The President. Well, if they're concerned about that, I will tell 
them that our people have always had a reluctance to send our young 
people in uniform overseas--that goes back throughout our entire 
history--and that on the whole that has been a healthy thing because we 
have not been--we have not been a country that has sought the gains of 
empire, we have not been a country that has sought to tell other people 
how they must live their lives; but that we are fundamentally a good 
people and when we understand our duty, historically, we nearly always 
do it. That's what I'll--thank you.

Federal Budget

    Q. What do you think of the Republicans thinking you shouldn't go 
and you should work on the budget?
    The President. We will be working on the budget.

Note: The President spoke at 10:40 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.