[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,

[[Page 59]]

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.