[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[April 4, 1997]
[Pages 387-389]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Calling for the Ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention 
and an Exchange With Reporters
April 4, 1997

    The President. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Boren, for 
your words and your presence here today. We were laughing before we came 
out here. Senator Boren and I started our careers in politics in 1974 
together, but he found a presidency that is not term-limited--
[laughter]--and I want to congratulate him on it.
    Mr. Vice President, Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, Secretary 
Baker, Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker, General Shalikashvili. Let me 
thank all of you who have spoken here today for the words you have said, 
for you have said it all. And let me thank all of you who have come here 
to be a part of this audience today to send a clear, unambiguous, united 
message to America and to our Senate.
    I thank General Colin Powell and Senator Warren Rudman, former arms 
negotiators Paul Nitze, Edward Rowny, and Ken Adelman; so many of the 
Congressmen who have supported us, including Senator Biden and Senator 
Levin who are here; the truly distinguished array of military leaders, 
leaders of businesses, religious organizations, human rights groups, 
scientists, and arms control experts.
    Secretary Baker made, I thought, a very telling point, which others 
made as well. This is, in the beginning, a question of whether we will 
continue to make America's leadership strong and sure as we chart our 
course in a new time. We have to do that, and we can only do that if we 
rise to the challenge of ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention.
    We are closing a 20th century which gives us an opportunity now to 
forge a widening international commitment to banish poison gas from the 
Earth in the 21st century. This is a simple issue at bottom, even though 
the details are somewhat complex. Presidents and legislators from both 
parties, military leaders, and arms control experts have bound together 
in common cause because this is simply good for the future of every 
American.
    I received two powerful letters recently, calling for ratification. 
One has already been mentioned that I received from Senator Nancy 
Kassebaum Baker, Senator Boren, and former National Security Adviser 
General Brent Scowcroft. The other came from General Powell, General 
Jones, General Vessey, General Schwarzkopf, and more than a dozen other 
retired generals and admirals, all of them saying as one: America needs 
to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention, and we must do it before it 
takes effect on April 29th.
    Of course, the treaty is not a panacea. No arms control treaty can 
be absolutely perfect, and none can end the need for vigilance. But no 
nation acting alone can protect itself from

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the threat posed by chemical weapons. Trying to stop their spread by 
ourselves would be like trying to stop the wind that helps carry their 
poison to its target. We must have an international solution to a global 
problem.
    The convention provides clear and overwhelming benefits for our 
people. Under a law Congress passed in the 1980's, we were already 
destroying almost all our chemical weapons. The convention requires 
other nations to follow our lead, to eliminate their arsenals of poison 
gas and to give up developing, producing, and acquiring such weapons in 
the future. By ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention, as Secretary 
Cohen said, we can help to shield our soldiers from one of the 
battlefield's deadliest killers. We can give our children something our 
parents and grandparents never had, broad protection against the threat 
of chemical attack. And we can bolster our leadership in the fight 
against terrorism of proliferation all around the world.
    If the Senate fails to ratify the convention before it enters into 
force, our national security and, I might add, our economic security 
will suffer. We will be denied use of the treaty's tools against rogue 
states and terrorists. We will lose the chance to help to enforce the 
rules we helped to write or to have Americans serve as international 
inspectors, something that is especially important for those who have 
raised concerns about the inspection provisions of the treaty.
    Ironically, if we are outside this agreement rather than inside, it 
is our chemical companies, our leading exporters, which will face 
mandatory trade restrictions that could cost them hundreds of millions 
of dollars in sales. In short order, America will go from leading the 
world to joining the company of pariah nations that the Chemical Weapons 
Convention seeks to isolate. We cannot allow this to happen.
    The time has come to pass this treaty, as 70 other nations already 
have done. Since I sent the Chemical Weapons Convention to the Senate 
3\1/2\ years ago, there have been more than a dozen hearings, more than 
1,500 pages of testimony and reports. During the last 3 months, we have 
worked very closely with Senate leaders to go the extra mile to resolve 
remaining questions and areas of concern. I want to thank those in the 
Senate who have worked with us for their leadership and for their good-
faith efforts.
    Ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention, again I say, is important 
both for what it does and for what it says. It says America is committed 
to protecting our troops, to fighting terror, to stopping the spread of 
weapons of mass destruction, to setting and enforcing standards for 
international behavior, and to leading the world in meeting the 
challenges of the 21st century. I urge the Senate to act in the highest 
traditions of bipartisanship and in the deepest of our national 
interest.
    And let me again say, the words that I have spoken today are nothing 
compared to the presence, to the careers, to the experience, to the 
judgment, to the patriotism of Republicans and Democrats alike and the 
military leaders who have gathered here and who all across this country 
have lent their support to this monumentally important effort. We must 
not fail. We have a lot of work to do, but I leave here today with 
renewed confidence that together we can get the job done.
    Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

[At this point, the President greeted the guests and later took 
questions from reporters.]

    Q. What about King Hussein--that the very terrorists who Secretary 
Cohen was talking about are the ones who are most likely to get hold of 
these weapons and who really are not going to be prohibited by this 
treaty?
    The President. But this will require--I have two responses. Number 
one, this will require other countries to do what we're already doing 
and destroy their stockpiles, so there won't be as much for them to get 
ahold of. Number two, it will make it much more difficult for the 
component parts that make bigger--are used to make chemical weapons to 
get into the hands of terrorists, because we'll have much stricter 
controls on them. So those are the two answers there. That's why all 
these people are for this.
    Q. They really are the people, though, who can get these without 
being regulated. I mean, you know----
    The President. Yes, but as Madeleine Albright said, that's the 
argument you make against drug trafficking. In other words, criminals 
will always make an effort to evade the law; that's what they do. But if 
you have--if you destroy the chemical stockpiles, and you make it more 
difficult for the agents to make the chemical weapons to get into the 
hands of terrorists, you have

[[Page 389]]

dramatically improved the security of the world. Yes, there will still 
be people who will try to do it. Yes, there will still be people in home 
laboratories who can make dangerous things. This does not solve every 
problem in the world, but it will make the world much safer.
    Q. Why do you think you had to do this today? Why did you have to 
come out and do it today?
    The President. Because we're going to have to work like crazy to 
pass the thing.
    Q. You don't have the votes right now?
    The President. No, but we'll get there. I don't know yet, but we'll 
get there. I feel very much better because of this broad bipartisan 
support, but I've been working with Senator Lott since the first of the 
year on this. He knows how important it is to me, and he's dealt with us 
in good faith. And we've worked with Senator Helms. We've worked with 
everybody, and we agreed that we would start the highly public, visible 
part of this campaign at about this time. So we're getting after it. 
We've got a month to deliver. We're going to try to do it.

Note: The President spoke at 11:01 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former Senator David L. Boren, 
president, University of Oklahoma; and retired generals Colin L. Powell, 
David C. Jones, and John W. Vessey, Jr., former Chairmen, Joint Chiefs 
of Staff, and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, former Commander in Chief, U.S. 
Central Command. The exchange portion of this item could not be verified 
because the tape was incomplete.