    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [January 13, 1996]
    [Pages 58-59]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    January 13, 1996

        Good morning. I'm speaking to you today from Taszar, Hungary, the
    main staging base for America's soldiers in Bosnia. I've just visited
    with our commanders and troops. The American people should be very proud
    of the job they're doing.
        Our Armed Forces are giving the Bosnian people, exhausted by 4 years
    of war, the strength to make peace. I wish every American could see
    firsthand what the men and women of our military are accomplishing under
    very difficult conditions, both here and in Bosnia.
        Here in Taszar, our troops are providing the beans, bullets, and
    black oil that are keeping our people in Bosnia fed, armed, and ready to
    roll. In Tuzla, the headquarters for our troops in Bosnia, the weather
    report is pretty much the same every day: mud, mud, and more mud. But
    despite that and the snow and the freezing rain, in less than a month
    our soldiers have built a base camp with more than 100 hard-backed
    tents, complete with wooden floors, heat, and lights. They've set up a
    road network and sophisticated communications. The airfield,

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    which had no lights or navigational equipment when they got there, is up
    and running 24 hours a day.
        Some of the men and women I'm seeing today designed, built, and now
    operate the pontoon bridge over the Sava River, the key landlink to
    Bosnia for our troops. The biggest Army bridging operation since World
    War II demanded the kind of strength and ingenuity that only American
    soldiers have. The river swelled to a record high for this century,
    washing away our encampments. Its banks became muddy bogs, but the Sava
    didn't drown America's spirit. As one of our Army engineers put it,
    ``We've been crossing rivers for 218 years; we're going to cross this
    river.'' And they did.
        Now that most of the preliminary work is done, our soldiers and
    their partners from more than two dozen other nations, including NATO
    allies and former adversaries like Hungary, Poland, and Russia, are set
    to carry out their mission, step by step, steadily, surely, and safely.
    They'll make sure the former warring parties in Bosnia live up to the
    letter of the peace agreement they signed, and they'll create a secure
    environment to give the people of Bosnia a chance to rebuild their lives
    and their land.
        Only the people of Bosnia can seize that chance and come together as
    equal citizens of a shared land with a common destiny. After so many
    lives lost and futures destroyed, finding the strength to live and work
    side by side, as they have done for so much of their history, will now
    be very hard. But I am convinced that the overwhelming majority of
    Bosnia's people agree that the alternative of return to the sorrow and
    suffering of the past 4 years must not be allowed to happen. And they're
    looking to our soldiers to help them make a new beginning.
        So often when people abroad look to America for help and hope,
    America looks to the men and women of our Armed Forces. Of course, we
    can't be everywhere, and even they can't do everything. But where we can
    make a difference and where our interests and our values are clearly at
    stake, we must step forward. In Bosnia, where those interests and values
    are very clearly at stake, our soldiers are making a difference, the
    difference between a war that resumes and a peace that can take hold.
        We've asked the men and women of our military to bear the burden of
    America's leadership, and they're rising to the challenge with strength,
    skill, and determination. The soldiers I've talked with are proud of
    their accomplishments and ready for the hard work ahead. I know all the
    American people are very proud of them, and that all Americans join me
    in saying Godspeed to the men and women of the world's finest military
    as they carry out their mission of peace in Bosnia.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 11:19 a.m., local time, at IFOR
    Headquarters, Taszar, Hungary, for domestic broadcast at 10:06 a.m.