    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 16, 1996]
    [Pages 758-759]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Inter-American Dialogue Dinner
    May 16, 1996

        Please, sit down and relax. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and
    gentlemen. Thank you for the very warm welcome. To our distinguished
    head table guests, former Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar,
    President Arias, Secretary Vance, Minister Lampreia, President Iglesias,
    Mr. Ambassador. To Peter Bell and Alejandro Foxley; my good friend and
    adviser on Latin America Mack McLarty; Peter Hakim; and of course, to
    our distinguished friend Mr. Linowitz.
        For 14 years, the Inter-American Dialogue has played a leading role
    in framing the debate on issues that really matter to the peoples of our
    hemisphere. As we enter a period of even closer cooperation in the
    Americas, I'm delighted that the Inter-American Dialogue is also
    intensifying its work.
        I'm especially pleased that you're carrying forward your efforts
    with the creation of the Inter-American Dialogue's Saul Linowitz Forum.
    By honoring Saul you have paid a fitting tribute to the extraordinary,
    extraordinary service that this great American and citizen of the world
    has rendered. In a lifetime devoted to the public, Ambassador Linowitz
    has helped to foster peace, cooperation, and partnership between the
    United States, the nations of the Americas, and other nations around the
    world.
        Saul has led here at home as well, working to confront the problems
    of racism, urban decay, and poverty. And he's called his own profession
    of law to a higher sense of duty. As the chair emeritus to the Inter-
    American Dialogue, he continues to make a difference, to promote the
    exchange and understanding that we need to bring our hemisphere closer
    together so that all of our people are more prosperous and secure.
        In 1967 Saul Linowitz organized the United States participation in
    the Punta del Este summit which became the model of the Summit of the
    Americas that we held in Miami in 1994 that Mr. McLarty and Hattie
    Babbitt and so many others in this room in our administration worked so
    very hard on. At the Miami summit, the nations of our hemisphere agreed
    on the challenges we must face together in opening our markets,
    strengthening our democracies, protecting our shared environment against
    pollution. And we developed a program to do all that and more so that
    our region can become more prosperous, more secure, and our freedom
    wider, broader, and deeper.

    [[Page 759]]

        In an important way, the Inter-American Dialogue helped to define
    the goals we set at the Summit of the Americas. And as now we look
    toward the next century, I'm glad the Saul Linowitz Forum will help to
    focus our discussions and our actions.
        I thank you all for all you have done to help define and shape the
    currents that flow deeper today in our hemisphere because of your work:
    democracy, market economics, justice, and growing partnership. I thank
    you all, and I especially thank Saul Linowitz.
        Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:13 p.m. in the Hall of the Americas at
    the Organization of American States. In his remarks, he referred to
    Javier Perez de Cuellar, former U.N. Secretary-General; Oscar Arias,
    former President of Costa Rica; Cyrus Vance, former U.S. Secretary of
    State; Minister of Foreign Affairs Luiz Lampreia of Brazil; Enrique
    Iglesias, president, Inter-American Development Bank; Paulo Tarso Flecha
    de Lima, Ambassador to the U.S. from Brazil; Peter Bell and Alejandro
    Foxley, co-chairs, and Peter Hakim, president, Inter-American Dialogue;
    and Saul Linowitz, former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of
    American States.