[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[June 27, 1996]
[Pages 982-984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Citizens of Perouges, France
June 27, 1996

    Mayor de la Chapelle; Mayor Bussy; Prefect Ritter; to Mr. Mavereaux, 
the president of the local veterans association; to Henri Girousse; to 
all the World War II veterans who are here; to members of Parliament; 
especially to the children and the teachers of Perouges and Meximieux; 
to my fellow Americans: Let me begin by saying that Hillary and I and 
our party

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are very, very pleased to be here in Perouges today, to be so warmly 
welcomed by you, and especially to be here with all the schoolchildren. 
Thank you very much. I would like to say a special word of thanks to the 
very large number of members of Parliament who are here and to the 
military band for providing such excellent music today.
    Mayor de la Chapelle, I know that your ancestor Pierre fought in our 
Revolutionary War and even advised our first President, George 
Washington. So, Mr. Mayor, I'm glad to be here with you today, and I 
would be happy to have any advice you might have for me today. 
[Applause] Thank you.
    Americans have been at home here since our soldiers trained together 
during World War I and our people fought together in the final days of 
World War II. I am glad to be here to renew our friendship with the 
people of Perouges, as we stand on the brink of a new century and an age 
of great possibility for the children who are here.
    As we drove from Lyons, Perouges rose in the distance, its great 
ramparts crowned by your beautiful church tower and tile roofs. Then we 
discovered the cobblestone streets, the narrow lanes, the hand-painted 
signs, the sundials, the drinking wells. The sense of timelessness is so 
strong in this beautiful place it is easy to forget that the story of 
Perouges is also the story of change. Weavers, craftsmen, and farmers 
once made this town a great medieval trading center. A century ago, the 
railroad passed you by and people began to leave. But then artists, 
historians, and ordinary citizens worked with government to establish 
your community as a historic monument. And ever since, the history you 
have preserved here has brought people like me from all around the world 
and allowed this wonderful community to thrive.
    We should all learn from this lesson. Today the world we live in is 
changing faster than ever. While more and more people prosper in this 
new global economy, others struggle without the proper education and 
training. While new technologies and rapid movements of information and 
money and people across national borders bring all of us closer 
together, they also make all of us more open to common dangers: crime, 
drug trafficking, and terrorism, as we saw in Saudi Arabia, where 19 
Americans were killed and many more were wounded. And I thank you, Mr. 
Mayor, for that moment of silence in their memory.
    To meet these challenges, we must show strength and steadiness and 
judgment and flexibility. We must meet our challenges and protect our 
values, just as you have here. That is what this G-7 meeting is all 
about, because I know that if we all work together, we can keep the 
world economy growing so that more and more of our people have the 
opportunity to make the most of their own lives. And if we all work 
together, we can face these terrible new threats to our security 
successfully.
    Terrorism is on our minds today because of the cowardly bombing in 
Saudi Arabia. So let me repeat what I said yesterday to the American 
people: We will not rest in our efforts to discover who is responsible, 
to track them down, and to bring them to justice. My friends, we must 
rally the forces of tolerance and freedom everywhere to work against 
terrorism, just as we are working together for peace in Bosnia today 
with the strong leadership of France and President Chirac.
    Last year the United States launched an international initiative to 
fight terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, and nuclear 
smuggling. Here in Lyons, I expect the G-7 nations to adopt 40 very 
specific recommendations to combat crime and terror, to increase our 
efforts to prevent terrorists from committing their crimes and our 
ability to track, catch, and punish them when they do. The future of the 
children here depends upon our success in this effort.
    Fifty-two years ago the French Resistance worked here in common 
cause with American GI's to win your freedom back. Now we must join 
together to face down the new threats to our freedom. Your unshakable 
devotion to freedom is literally rooted here in the heart of your town 
in this mighty linden tree, which was planted just over 200 years ago 
during the French Revolution. You call it the Tree of Liberty. Today's 
threats to the liberty your tree symbolizes are very different from 
those of 200 years ago, different from the threats of World War II or 
the cold war, but they are real, and we must face them. We must face 
them so that the children here today will enter the 21st century free 
and secure, with the greatest opportunity to live out their dreams of 
any generation in human history. That is my dream. It is one I hope we 
all share.

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    Thank you very much. God bless America, and vive la France.

Note: The President spoke at 12:30 p.m. at Liberty Place. In his 
remarks, he referred to Mayor Guy Passarat de la Chapelle of Perouges, 
France; Mayor Christian Bussy of Meximieux, France; and Philippe Ritter, 
Prefect of the Ain.