    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [April 23, 1997]
    [Pages 476-478]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Chemical Weapons Convention and an Exchange With
    Reporters
    April 23, 1997

        The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
    Wallace, for your remarks and for your service; Mr. Vice President;
    General Shalikashvili. Thank you, General

    [[Page 477]]

    Scowcroft, for being here. Thank you, Admiral Zumwalt, for being here
    and for being on this issue for so long. General Jones, Admiral Arthur,
    to all the distinguished veterans and veterans groups who are with us
    today and to the men and women in uniform who are here today. And I'd
    like to say a special word of thanks to General Powell and to Senator
    Dole for being here.
        You have witnessed today, I believe, an example of America at its
    best, working as it should, putting the interests of the American people
    and the interests of the men and women of America in uniform first. And
    it is something for which I am very grateful.
        This treaty will make our troops safer. It will make our Nation more
    secure. It will at least reduce the likelihood that innocent civilians
    here and around the world will be exposed in the future to horrible
    chemical weapons. That is why every Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for the
    last 20 years and all the military leaders and political leaders and
    veterans you have heard today have supported it.
        All the arguments have been made, so I would like to tell you a
    story. We now know that chemical weapons have bedeviled Americans in
    uniform from Belleau Wood in World War I to Baghdad in the Gulf war. We
    know that thousands were injured or killed by chemical warfare in World
    War I. And I thought it would be a wonderful thing today to show what
    this treaty is all about, to have one remarkable American veteran of
    World War I who survived such an attack. And he is here with us today,
    Mr. George Clark. Thank you for coming, sir. God bless you.
        Mr. Clark was just in the Oval Office with all of us. And Senator
    Dole apparently asked him if he was a contemporary of Senator Thurmond,
    and he said he thought Senator Thurmond was a little young for the heavy
    responsibilities that he has enjoyed. [Laughter]
        As a 16-year-old marine, almost 80 years ago, George Clark fought in
    the Battle of Soissons in July of 1918. Taking cover in a ditch during
    fierce fighting, his squad came under artillery attack by mustard gas.
    Every man except him was either killed or wounded as the poisonous fog
    settled on the ground. But Corporal Clark, who received the Purple Heart
    for what he endured that day--and he's wearing it here today, 80 years
    later--refused medical treatment even though, as he said, ``It hurt my
    lungs bad.'' This man went on to serve our country in World War II and
    the Korean war in the Army and in the Air Force, retiring after 32 years
    of active duty.
        Sir, I thank you for your extraordinary record of service and
    sacrifice to our Nation. I thank you for caring about all the young
    people who will follow in your footsteps and for taking the effort and
    the trouble to be here today to support the ratification of the Chemical
    Weapons Convention. God bless you, sir, and thank you.
        All the arguments have been made, and the vote is about to come in.
    But let me just restate a couple of points I think are very important
    that the opponents of this treaty cannot effectively rebut. We have
    decided--as General Powell said, we have decided to give up our chemical
    weapons. We decided to do that a long time ago.
        Now, as more and more nations eliminate their arsenals and they give
    up not only their arsenals, but they give up developing, producing, and
    acquiring such weapons, our troops will be less likely to face attack.
    But also as stockpiles are eliminated and as the transfer of dangerous
    chemicals--including chemicals which can be put together to form
    chemical weapons for that purpose--as that is controlled, it will be
    more difficult for terrorists and for rogue states to get or make poison
    gas. That is why it is not a good argument that we don't have some
    countries involved in this treaty. That's not an argument against
    ratification. This commits everybody else not to give them anything that
    they can use to make chemical weapons to use against our forces or
    innocent civilians.
        We also have now tough new tools on short notice, on-site
    inspections; we create a worldwide intelligence and information sharing
    network; we strengthen the authority of our own law enforcement
    officials. That is also very important. That's one of the reasons the
    Japanese were so supportive of this, because of what they have endured
    in their country. All these things together are going to help us make
    America's men and women in uniform and American citizens safer.
        During the last 2 months, as Senator Dole said so clearly, we have
    worked hard with Senate Majority Leader Lott, Senator Helms, Senator
    Lugar, Senator Biden, and others. We've resolved virtually all the
    concerns that some Senators have raised, and those resolutions will be
    embodied tomorrow in an amendment with the

    [[Page 478]]

    28 understandings to which Senator Dole referred.
        Now, we can't let the minor and relatively small number of
    disagreements that remain blind us to the overwhelming fact, to use the
    words of Admiral Zumwalt, that at the bottom line our failure to ratify
    will substantially increase the risk of a chemical attack against
    American service personnel. None of us should be willing to take that.
    As Commander in Chief, I cannot in good conscience take that risk. I'm
    very proud of the work that's been done under the two predecessor
    administrations to mine of the opposite party. And I'm very proud that
    we're all standing here together today as Americans in support of a good
    and noble and tremendously significant endeavor. And all working
    together, maybe tomorrow it will come out all right.
        Thank you, and God bless you.
        Q. Mr. President, at his briefing today, Senator Lott appeared to be
    leaning toward supporting this treaty--that's sort of my analysis--
    because of the so-called 28 conditionalities, as he says. If there are
    so many provisos--if this passes with so many provisos, what is the rest
    of the world going to think of this treaty? And can we just--the United
    States say, because we're putting so much in the bill--can we just say,
    ``You accept it the way we like it?''
        The President. If you read the provisos tomorrow, every one of them
    is consistent with the overall treaty and would clearly be a
    clarification of it. I think the rest of the world will applaud what we
    have done. And I believe that in very important respects they will say,
    ``That's the way we read the treaty all along.'' So I believe it will be
    reinforcing it. And I think you'll see the differences over the debate
    tomorrow, where the line falls. I think it will be clear that this will
    strengthen and enhance the meaning of the treaty, not only for ourselves
    but for others all around the world.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Robert Wallace, executive
    director, Veterans of Foreign Wars; Gen. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (ret.),
    former National Security Adviser; Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., USN (ret.),
    former Chief of Naval Operations; Gen. David C. Jones, USAF (ret.),
    former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Vice Adm. Stanley R. Arthur, USN
    (ret.), former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Logistics; Gen. Colin
    L. Powell, USA (ret.), former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; and
    former Senator Bob Dole.