[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[April 11, 1997]
[Pages 423-432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With the American Society of 
Newspaper Editors
April 11, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much. And thank you, Bob, for 
reminding me of my best line from the speech last night. [Laughter] 
George Bush got the last laugh--[laughter]--12,000 feet, not a scratch. 
I fell 6 inches; I'm hobbled for 6 months. [Laughter]
    I'm delighted to be here. I want to thank you for having me and 
congratulate this year's writing award winners. I missed last year, and 
I'm sorry I couldn't come, but the Vice President told me all about it. 
And because he came here, I had to listen one more time and look one 
more time at all those pictures from his days as a long-haired reporter 
for the Nashville Tennessean. [Laughter] This is what it's really like. 
I don't mind learning about global warming and high technology and 
everything, but I had to learn all about the newspaper business all over 
again. [Laughter] I hear that speech about once every 3 months from him.
    You know, times have changed remarkably since Will Rogers said, 
``All I know is what I see in the papers.'' Today, we live in a world 
with 500 channels, literally hundreds of thousands of web sites 
exploding all the time--we're trying to develop the Internet, too--but 
still, the role that you play in informing and educating Americans and 
in helping them to make the right kind of choices is terribly important.
    I want to talk today about one of those choices that will have a 
profound effect on all of our lives and the lives of our children in the 
next century, and that is the choices we must make to sustain America's 
leadership in the world.
    Four years ago I came into office determined to renew our strength 
and prosperity here at home. But I also believed that in the global 
society of the 21st century, the dividing line between foreign and 
domestic policy was increasingly an artificial distinction. After all, 
our national security depends on strong families, safe streets, and 
world-class education. And our success at home clearly depends on our 
strength and willingness and our ability to lead abroad.
    The conviction that America must be strong and involved in the world 
has really been the bedrock of our foreign policy for the last 50 years. 
After World War II, a generation of farsighted leaders forged NATO, 
which has given us a half century of security and played a strong role 
in ending the cold war. They built the United Nations so that a hard-won 
peace would not be lost. They launched the Marshall plan

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to rebuild a Europe ravaged by war. They created the World Bank and 
other international financial institutions to pave the way for 
unprecedented prosperity for American people and others around the 
world. They did this throughout a half century, Republicans and 
Democrats together, united in bipartisan support for the American 
leadership that has been essential to the strength and security of the 
American people for half a century now.
    Now we stand at the dawn of a new century and a new millennium--
another moment to be farsighted, another moment to guarantee America 
another 50 years of security and prosperity. We've largely swept away 
the blocs and barriers that once divided whole continents. But as 
borders become more open and the flow of information, technology, money, 
trade, and people across the borders are larger and more rapid, the line 
between domestic and foreign policy continues to blur.
    And we can only preserve our security and our well-being at home by 
being strongly involved in the world beyond our borders. From fighting 
terrorism and drug trafficking to limiting the proliferation of weapons 
of mass destruction, to protecting the global environment, we stand to 
gain from working with other nations, and we will surely lose if we fail 
to do so.
    Just as American leaders of both political parties did 50 years ago, 
we have to come together to take new initiatives and revitalize and 
reform old structures so that we can prepare our country to succeed and 
win and make the world a better place in this new era.
    You know, it is commonplace to say that since the end of the cold 
war, America stands alone as the world's only superpower. That is 
clearly true, but it can be dangerously misleading because our power can 
only be used if we are willing to become even more involved with others 
all around the world in an increasingly interdependent world. We must be 
willing to shape this interdependent world and to embrace its 
interdependence, including our interdependence on others. There is no 
illusory Olympus on which the world's only superpower can sit and expect 
to preserve its position, much less enhance it.
    In my State of the Union Address, I set out six key strategic 
objectives for America's prosperity, security, and democratic values in 
the 21st century: first, a Europe that is undivided, democratic, and at 
peace for the first time in its history; second, strong and stable 
relations between the United States and Asia; third, our willing 
continuation of America's leadership as the world's most important force 
for peace; fourth, the creation of more jobs and opportunity for our 
people through a more open and competitive trading system that also 
helps others all around the world; fifth, increasing cooperation in 
confronting new security threats that defy borders and unilateral 
solutions; and sixth, the provision of the tools necessary to meet these 
challenges, from maintaining the world's strongest, most modern, and 
most adaptable military to maintaining a strong, fully funded, and 
comprehensive diplomacy.
    On that last point, let me just point out that Secretary Albright 
often says that our whole diplomatic budget is only about one percent of 
the budget. We devote less of our resources to that than any other major 
country in the world. And yet, about half of America's legacy will be 
determined by whether we have the adequate resources to do that. That's 
a very important thing, because I think most of your readers don't know 
that. They think we spend more and get less out of our foreign policy 
investments when, in fact, we spend less and get more than almost any 
other area of public endeavor.
    Each of these six goals is vital to realizing the promise of our 
time and to guarding against its perils. Together, they provide a 
blueprint for our future, not just for the next 4 years but for the next 
half-century.
    In the next 3 months we'll face critical choices that will determine 
whether we have the vision and will to pursue these objectives. We have 
to seize the opportunity to complete the mission America set out on 50 
years ago and to push forward on the mission of the next 50 years.
    We will begin by strengthening the foundation for security and 
prosperity in our own hemisphere. In the first of my three trips to the 
Americas over the next year, I will meet with our closest neighbors in 
Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to help our democracies and 
economies grow together and to intensify our shared fight against crime, 
drugs, illegal immigration, and pollution.
    Just before the 50th anniversary of the Marshall plan, I will hold a 
summit with the European Union to affirm our transatlantic ties even as 
we expand our global partnership.

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    I will host the world's leading industrial democracies at what we 
used to call the G-7 but now call the Summit of the Eight in Denver, 
which will give us an opportunity to deepen our cooperation with Russia 
for peace and freedom and prosperity.
    At the NATO summit in Madrid this July, we will continue to adapt 
NATO to the demands of a new era and invite the first--but not the 
last--new members to join history's most successful alliance.
    And I will continue America's efforts to bring the parties together 
at this very difficult moment for peace in the Middle East.
    Like the larger agenda they support, each of these initiatives calls 
for American leadership that is strong and steadfast. The powerful trend 
toward democracy and free markets is neither inevitable nor 
irreversible. Sustaining it will take relentless effort. But leadership 
brings its rewards. The more America leads, the more willing others will 
be to share the risks and the responsibilities of forging the future we 
want.
    In the last 4 years, we have seen that over and over again. We've 
seen it in Bosnia. We've seen it in Haiti. We've seen it in the Summit 
of the Americas and in the APEC leaders forum, where we have agreed with 
our partners to build a free and open trading system early in the next 
century.
    Our leadership also faces two other pressing tests now and in the 
coming months: first, immediately ratifying the Chemical Weapons 
Convention; and then, giving the United States the means we need to 
continue our growth by making trade more open and fair in the global 
economy.
    Let me deal with the first issue. For the last 50 years, Americans 
have lived under the hair-trigger threat of mass destruction. Our 
leadership has been essential to lifting that global peril, thanks in 
large measure to the efforts of my predecessors and during the last 4 
years also, when we have made remarkable progress.
    The collapse of the Soviet Union left 3,400 nuclear warheads in 
Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Today, there are none. North Korea was 
accumulating material for nuclear weapons when I became President. Now 
its nuclear program is frozen, under international supervision, and 
eventually will be dismantled.
    We helped to win the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, a powerful global barrier to the spread of nuclear 
weapons and their technology. We led in concluding the Comprehensive 
Test Ban Treaty, which will bring to life a decades-old dream of ending 
nuclear weapons testing. President Yeltsin and I agreed in Helsinki to a 
roadmap through the START treaties to cut our nuclear arsenals over the 
next decade by 80 percent from their cold war peaks and actually to 
destroy the warheads so they can never be used for destructive ends.
    Now America must rise to the challenge of ratifying the Chemical 
Weapons Convention and doing it before it takes effect on April 29th, 
less than 3 weeks from today.
    This century opened with the horror of chemical warfare in the 
trenches of World War I. Today, at the dawn of a new century, we have 
the opportunity to forge a widening international commitment to begin 
banishing poison gas from the Earth, even as we know it remains a grave, 
grave threat in the hands of rogue states or terrorist groups.
    The Chemical Weapons Convention requires other nations to do what we 
decided to do more than a decade ago, get rid of all chemical weapons. 
In other words, the treaty is about other nations destroying their 
chemical weapons. As they do so and renounce the development, 
production, acquisition, or use of chemical arms and pledge not to help 
others acquire them or produce them, our troops will be less likely to 
face one of the battlefield's most lethal threats. As stockpiles are 
eliminated and the transfer of dangerous chemicals is controlled, rogue 
states and terrorists will have a harder time getting the ingredients 
for weapons. And that will protect not only military forces but also 
innocent civilians.
    By giving us new tools for verification, enabling us to tap a global 
network for intelligence and information, and strengthening our own law 
enforcement, the treaty will make it easier for us to prevent and to 
punish those who seek to violate its rules.
    The Chemical Weapons Convention reflects the best of American 
bipartisanship, negotiated under President Reagan and President Bush, 
supported by a broad and growing number of Americans, including every 
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since the Carter administration. 
Last week at the White House, I was proud to welcome a remarkable cross-
section of these supporters, including former Secretary of State

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James Baker, General Colin Powell, other military leaders, legislators, 
arms control experts, and representatives from small and large 
businesses, religious groups, and scientists.
    I urge the Senate to do what is right and ratify this convention. If 
we fail to do it, we won't be there to enforce a treaty that we helped 
to write, leaving our military and our people more vulnerable to a 
silent and sudden killer. We will put ourselves in the same column with 
rogue nations like Libya and Iraq that reject this treaty, instead of in 
the company of those that set the norms for civilized behavior in this 
world. We will subject our chemical companies, among our leading 
exporters, to severe trade restrictions that could cost them hundreds of 
millions of dollars in sales and cost many Americans good jobs. And 
perhaps most important, we will send a clear signal of retreat to the 
rest of the world at the very time when we ought to be sending the 
opposite signal.
    America has led the effort to establish an international ban against 
chemical weapons. Now we have to ratify it and remain on the right side 
of history. If we do, there will be new momentum and moral authority to 
our leadership in reducing even more the dangers of weapons of mass 
destruction.
    Within my lifetime we've made enormous strides, stepping back from 
the nuclear precipice, from the bleak time of fallout shelters and air-
raid drills. But we have so much more to do. We have to strengthen the 
world's ability to stop the use of deadly diseases as biological weapons 
of war. We have to freeze the production of raw materials used for 
nuclear bombs. We must give greater bite to the global watchdogs 
responsible for detecting hidden weapons systems and programs. 
Continuing this progress demands constant work, nonstop vigilance, and 
American leadership.
    There is a second matter that demands bipartisan cooperation in the 
coming months. For 50 years, our Nation has led the world not only in 
building security but in promoting global prosperity. Now we have to 
choose whether to continue to shape the international economy so that it 
works for all our people or to shrink from its challenges. The rapidly 
growing and ever-changing global economy is an inescapable fact of our 
time. In the last 50 years, global trade has increased 90 fold. Over the 
next decade, it is expected to grow at 3 times the rate of the American 
economy. Nations once divided by great gulfs of geography and military 
rivalry are now linked by surging currents of commerce.
    Now, the world marketplace does pose stiff challenges. But it offers 
us great opportunity. In each of the last 3 years, the United States has 
been ranked the world's most competitive economy. Our exports have 
surged to record levels; our budget deficit is now the smallest as a 
share of national income of any major economy in the world; basic 
industries have revived. Our auto industry is number one in the world 
again for the first time since the 1970's. From semiconductors to 
biotech to Hollywood, American firms lead the industries that are 
remaking the world. Our economy produced 11\1/2\ million jobs in the 
last 4 years for the first time ever. Our unemployment today is 5.2 
percent; that's 1\1/2\ percent lower than the 25-year average before I 
took office.
    We can make the most of this new economic era. We do not need to be 
afraid of global trade. But in a world where we have only 4 percent of 
the population and where the fastest growing markets for our products 
and services are Asia and Latin America, where export-related jobs pay 
13 to 16 percent more than other American jobs, we don't have a choice; 
we have to export. To do that, we have to have higher skills, stronger 
productivity, deeper investment. That's why we have to balance the 
budget--to keep our interest rates down, our investment up, and to keep 
the economy going.
    We have to give our people the best education in the world. That's 
why we need the new national school standards. We must open the doors of 
college to all. We ought to pass the ``GI bill'' for America's workers 
I've proposed that would give every unemployed and underemployed person 
a skills grant to use and get into training that he or she needs.
    We must continue to expand research and development in both the 
public and private sectors. And in every opportunity, we have to press 
forward for more open international trade.
    Our administration has concluded more than 200 separate trade 
agreements, each of which opens someone else's markets wider to American 
business. We fought for NAFTA, which created the free market with our 
neighbors, and today, in spite of its economic crisis, our exports to 
Mexico are up 37 percent over pre-NAFTA levels. We broke 7 years of 
global gridlock and successfully negotiated the new round of GATT,

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which has lowered average tariffs on Americans goods around the world by 
one-third. We have broken down barriers and boosted exports to Japan, up 
41 percent since 1993 and 85 percent in the areas where we have 
negotiated specific trade agreements.
    This is a record to build on, not to rest on. When the momentum for 
open market falters, the world can easily slide backward. And when 
America falters, our relative position will certainly slide backward. It 
is unacceptable for us to sit on the sidelines while other nations forge 
bonds of trade. Only American leadership can create the prosperity for 
our people and for the world in the next 50 years. And America cannot 
lead if we don't act.
    And here's what the issue is: Every American President since 1974, 
Democrat and Republican alike, has had the authority to negotiate new 
trade agreements, called fast-track negotiating authority, which permits 
the agreements to be presented in a package to the Congress to be 
approved up or down. Every time this has been extended with the support 
of Members of Congress of both parties. That is how we have exercised 
our most fundamental economic leadership. That authority has expired. 
And today I renew my call to Congress to give me the authority to 
negotiate new trade agreements that will create opportunities for our 
workers and our businesses in the global economy and will maintain our 
leadership in creating the kind of world we want the young people who 
are here in this audience to live in.
    We have seen in the past 6 months what a strong trade agreement can 
do for our people and our businesses. The information technology 
agreement that we reached with 37 other nations in December will 
eliminate tariffs and unshackle trade on $500 billion of trade in 
computers, semiconductors, and telecommunications. This amounts to a $5 
billion cut in tariffs on American products exported to other nations. 
It can lead to hundreds of thousands of high-wage jobs for Americans.
    Now, if Congress grants fast-track authority, I can use it to open 
trade in areas where American firms are leading and where our future 
lies. We lead the world in high technology. In years to come, we must 
press to tear down barriers that keep that technology, products like 
computer software, medical equipment, environmental technology out of 
other markets.
    We lead the world in agricultural exports. We have to negotiate 
trade agreements to open even more markets. We will negotiate a 
comprehensive free trade agreement with Chile and follow through on our 
leadership to determine the future of trade in our own hemisphere with 
our own neighbors, all of whom but one are democracies. And we have to 
keep them that way and keep them strong.
    We will press aggressively to open markets in Asia as well. We must 
also continue to open opportunities in the world's newest market 
economies. In particular, I urge Congress to support my new partnership 
for freedom, to expand trade and investment, entrench free markets in 
democracy, and promote stability in Russia and the New Independent 
States.
    If we don't seize these opportunities, our competitors surely will. 
Let me just give you one example. Last year, for the first time ever, 
Latin American nations had more trade with Europe than the United 
States. There is no reason to think that others will wait while we sit 
idle. These nations, in Latin America especially, are our friends; 
they're our partners. They have done an enormously important thing in 
moving to freedom and democracy in the last few years all over Central 
and South America. We dare not let this opportunity pass us by.
    I am determined that the new trade agreements we seek will be good 
for our working people. After all, we've got 11\1/2\ million more jobs 
and 5.2 percent unemployment; we know we can make it good for the 
American people. And I am determined that they will be good for the 
environment. More and more, in the future, we will see nations 
negotiating environmental partnerships for the sake of their economies 
and the stability of their society and the future of their children.
    I have asked the United States Trade Representative, Charlene 
Barshefsky, to work with Members of Congress of both parties, with labor 
and business and environmental groups to try to reach consensus on these 
issues. But let me be clear: There is one consensus we cannot avoid. We 
cannot shrink from the challenges of leadership in the global economy.
    Trade and communications are remaking our world. They're bringing it 
closer together. They're bringing a revolution in global trade. Because 
in the long run we know that it's going to happen, we ought to lead it. 
We have to lead it. And if we do, it will increase our buying

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power and expand our exports. American workers and businesses, given the 
chance, can outcompete anyone, and I hope Congress will help me let them 
do just that.
    The larger question we face is as old as America: whether to turn 
inward or reach outward, whether to fear change or embrace it. Over the 
past 50 years, over the past 4 years, I believe we've made the choices 
that have served America well.
    Now we face another moment of choice. While we no longer face a 
single implacable foe, the enemy of our time is inaction. It is so easy 
to be inactive when things seem to be going well and so easy to believe 
a new choice will cause more trouble than it will do good. But we did 
not get where we are today by being inactive or by sitting on the 
sidelines. The decisions we make in the next few months will set 
America's course in the world for the next 50 years. We have to make 
them together, and they must be the right ones.
    Thank you very much.

Security Classified Information

[A participant asked if the President would support legislation proposed 
by the Commission on Protection and Reduction of Government Secrecy to 
place restraints on security classification of Government documents and 
to create a declassification center to report to the Congress on 
progress in that area.]

    The President. Well, first of all, let me say, the short answer to 
your question is: I think there has to be--we have to do something about 
it to respond to the commission's report and to respond to the fact that 
there are too many people who can make too many things classified in the 
Government. And we are reviewing the report. We have also started 
conversations with Members of Congress about it. And I'm--we're 
attempting to fashion what we think is the appropriate response. But let 
me remind you that I believe that we ought to unearth more documents and 
not keep so many secrets for so long.
    I've worked very hard to open up documents since I've been 
President. We did it with the human radiation experiments. We have 
conducted a relentless effort to find out what really happened in the 
Gulf war, in terms of whether our people were or were not and to what 
extent exposed to dangerous chemicals. And in any number of other ways, 
I support the general thrust for the commission's report.
    I have asked my staff to study it. I have not received a specific 
recommendation on the specific points in the report, but generally I 
think there is too much secrecy in the Government, and I think too many 
people have too much unfettered discretion just to declare documents 
secret, and I think that you will see some significant progress coming 
out of this.

Domestic Chemical Weapons Stockpiles

[A participant asked about more intensive scrutiny of the Nation's aging 
chemical weapons stockpiles, suggesting accelerated disposal and highway 
infrastructure improvements to decrease risks to the public.]

    The President. You've asked me a question no one's ever asked me 
before, but I can tell you the answer to the first question is, does it 
make more sense to bring more attention to the country about it? The 
answer to that is yes, if for no other reason, not just because of what 
your people may be exposed to but because one of the reasons we decided 
to destroy all this before I ever came along--my predecessors made that 
decision, it was the right one--is that you don't want even small 
amounts of these kinds of chemicals in the wrong hands--can be used for 
very bad things.
    And let me also say--now, on the second question, I will have to go 
back and see what the facts are and see what we can do to accelerate it. 
I don't know enough now to give you a sensible answer, but you've asked 
a good question, and I will get an answer, and I'll get back to you. And 
let me just make one other point on this. Some of the opponents of the 
Chemical Weapons Convention say, ``Well, you know, you can't protect 
everybody against everything.'' Well, if that were the standard, we'd 
never have any treaties, and we wouldn't pass any laws.
    You know, still, some people may be able to cook up chemical weapons 
in laboratories in their garages. But if you look at what happened to 
the Japanese people, for example, when the extremist sect unleashed the 
sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, it was a devastating thing. Now, maybe 
they could or could not do that once the chemical weapons regime is 
fully in force and we have much tighter restrictions on what can cross 
national lines. But one thing we know for sure: Japan has already 
ratified this treaty

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because they have suffered through this, and they know even if somebody 
who has got a half-cocked idea and a home-baked laboratory can go out 
and do something terrible like this, there will be fewer incidents like 
this if we pass the Chemical Weapons Convention.
    And I think it's very interesting--a lot of the objections that have 
been raised to this convention in America were totally dismissed out of 
hand in Japan, a country that has genuinely suffered from chemicals like 
this in the hands of terrorists. But that goes back to the question the 
gentleman from Alabama asked, and it's one of the reasons we want to 
destroy our stockpiles as quickly as possible, because, in addition to 
the risks that people in the area are exposed to, we want to minimize 
the chances that anybody ever can get their hands on any of this for 
mischievous, evil purposes.

Access to Chemical Weapons Technology

[A participant requested a response to the argument that the Chemical 
Weapons Convention might allow some rogue states access to U.S. chemical 
weapons technology and asked if the President could change the treaty to 
ensure its ratification.]

    The President. Well, first of all, it is--let me answer the second 
question first, and then I'll go back. In general, obviously no one 
country can change the body of a treaty which has already been ratified 
by other countries; we can't do that, and lots of other countries have 
ratified it. But every country is empowered to, in effect, attach a set 
of understandings as to what the treaty means, and as long as they're 
not plainly inconsistent with the thrust of the document and don't 
vitiate it, they can go forward. And one of the things we've been doing 
with a lot of the opponents and the skeptics of the treaty--Senator 
Helms, for example, and others raised, I think, 30 different questions 
in the beginning, and we have reached agreement, I believe, in 20 of 
those 30 areas, and we've offered alternatives that we believe are 
reasonable in the other areas.
    Let me just say for those of you who may not understand this, Iran 
is a signatory of the--they have ratified the Chemical Weapons 
Convention. Iraq and Libya have not and will not. The concern is that if 
a country is attacked by chemical weapons, and they are part of the 
treaty, that all the rest of us have pledged to do something to help 
them. And the concern would be, well, what if Iran is attacked by Iraq, 
and the United States and Germany, for example, give them a lot of 
sophisticated defense technology on chemical weapons, and they turn 
around and use the chemical weapons against someone else--in other 
words, if they turned out to have lied about their promise in the 
treaty? That's the argument.
    We have made it clear that, as regards other countries, we will not 
do anything to give them our technology--not Iran, not anybody--and 
that's what our response will be, will be limited to helping them deal 
with the health effects of the attack. We will help people in medical 
ways and with other things having to do with the health consequences.
    So I believe that the compromise we have reached on that, once it 
becomes fully public and the language is dealt with, will be acceptable 
to at least most of those who have opposed the treaty on that ground.

Cuba

[A participant asked about the difference between the U.S. policy of 
engagement with such countries as China, Vietnam, and North Korea, and 
the policy of embargo for Cuba, suggesting it would be better to open up 
Cuba.]

    The President. Well, I think, first of all, as a practical matter, 
with each of these countries, we do what we think is in our interest and 
what is most likely to further our interest. Secondly, the other three 
countries you have mentioned have not murdered any Americans lately.
    We had a law that I strongly supported, the Cuba democracy act. I 
strongly supported it. I thought it was absolutely the right policy. It 
strengthened the economic embargo but also gave us a chance to open up 
relations to Cuba and to take care of humanitarian problems, to 
facilitate travel, to do all kinds of things. And we were implementing 
that law. It gave the Executive requisite flexibility. And in return for 
the Cuba democracy act, the Castro government illegally shot down two 
planes and murdered Americans. And so we changed our policy. Congress 
was outraged. They passed the Helms-Burton law, and I signed it 
regretfully but not reluctantly.
    And our policy toward Cuba, therefore, today is one that was 
dictated by Cuba, not by the United States. And until I see some 
indication

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of willingness to change, it's going to be very difficult to persuade me 
to change our policy. And I would have a different attitude toward China 
or Vietnam or North Korea if they murdered any Americans. And I would 
hope you would want me to have a different attitude toward them if they 
did.

President's Legacy and Aspirations for the Future

[A participant said his son's class would vote for the first time in 
2004 and asked what the President's legacy would be for them and what 
they could do to prepare themselves for the future.]

    The President. Let me answer the second question first. I think the 
following things I would recommend to the fifth graders to prepare 
themselves for the 21st century. Number one, first and foremost, be a 
good student. Learn all you can. Learn the hard things as well as those 
that aren't hard for you. And stay out of trouble. Don't do something 
dumb, like get involved with drugs or alcohol or something that will 
wreck your life. Learn. Be a good student.
    Secondly, get to know people who are your age but who are different 
from you, people of a different racial or ethnic group, people of a 
different religion, because you're going to live in the most 
multiethnic, multiracial, multireligious democracy in human history. And 
how we handle that will determine whether the 21st century is also an 
American century--still somewhat of an open question, although I'm 
encouraged about it.
    The third thing I would say is, learn as much as you can about the 
rest of the world, because it will be a smaller world and you will need 
to know more about it.
    And the fourth thing I would say is, start to take the 
responsibilities of citizenship seriously and find some way--even at the 
age of 10--to be of service in your community, whether it's helping some 
student in your school that's not learning as well as he or she should 
or doing something on the weekends to help people who are unfortunate. I 
think that we need to build an ethic of citizen service into our young 
people.
    Those are the four things I would advise him to do.
    In terms of what I hope the legacy will be, I hope people will look 
back on this period and say that while I was President, we prepared 
America for the 21st century basically in three ways: that we preserved 
the American dream of opportunity for everybody who is willing to work 
for it; number two, that we preserved America's leadership for peace and 
freedom and prosperity in the world, and the world is a better place 
because of it; and number three, that Americans are living in greater 
harmony with one another as one America because we passionately 
advocated a respect for people's differences and respect for our shared 
values, and we made real progress in overcoming these divides and 
extremist hatreds that have not only weakened our democracy but are 
virtually destroying countries all around the world.
    Or in a more pedestrian way, I hope at least people will say, 
``Well, after Bill Clinton was President, at least we had a new set of 
problems to deal with.'' [Laughter]
    In 1983, I was in Portland, Maine, at a Governors conference. And 
the former Senator and former Secretary of State, Edmund Muskie, who 
recently passed away--a remarkable man--was there. And we were having a 
visit, and he said, ``You know, I loved being a Governor. In some ways I 
liked it even more than being a Senator or Secretary of State. I liked 
running something.'' And I said, ``How did you keep score, Senator 
Muskie? How did you know whether you had succeeded or not?'' He said, 
``I knew I had succeeded if my successor had a new set of problems.'' 
[Laughter]
    And you think about it: We will always have problems. It's endemic 
to the human condition and to the nature of life. The way you define 
progress is if you get a new set of problems and if you get over it.
    And particularly, I feel, on this whole issue of how we deal with 
our racial diversity--it's something, of course, that's dominated my 
whole life because I grew up as a Southerner, but it's a very different 
issue now. It's more than black Americans and white Americans. The 
majority of students in the Los Angeles County schools are Hispanic. And 
there are 4 school districts in America--4--where there are children who 
have more than 100 different racial, ethnic, or linguistic backgrounds 
within the school districts already.

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    So this is a big deal. And every issue that we debate, whether it's 
affirmative action or immigration or things that seem only peripherally 
involved in this, need to be viewed through the prism of how we can 
preserve one America, the American dream, our shared values, and still 
accord people real respect and appreciation for their independent 
heritages. It will be a great, great challenge. It's a challenge that, 
by the way, I think the newspapers of the country can do a lot to help 
promote in terms of advancing dialogue, diversifying your own staffs, 
doing the things that will help America to come to grips with what it 
means not to be a country with a legacy of slavery and the differences 
between blacks and whites but to have grafted onto that not only the 
immigration patterns of the early 20th century but what is happening to 
us now.
    It is really potentially a great thing for America that we are 
becoming so multi-ethnic at the time the world is becoming so closely 
tied together. But it's also potentially a powder keg of problems and 
heartbreak and division and loss. And how we handle it will determine, 
really--that single question may be the biggest determinant of what we 
look like 50 years from now and what our position in the world is and 
what the children of that age will have to look forward to.

National Economy

[A participant said his area had been devastated by downsizing of the 
military and asked how the President's trade policies would help revive 
its citizens' spirits and its economy.]

    The President. Well, let's talk about the downsizing of the military 
and the trade policy. The trade policy alone won't necessarily revive a 
place with a stagnant economy, because very often the trade policy 
increases jobs in the places that are already doing well, because 
success will build on success. So the only way it can help is if the 
people in the Mohawk Valley can identify companies that are going to 
have to expand because of expanding trade and try to get the expansions 
to locate there.
    But what I think is important--and I believe the United States, 
first of all, has an extra obligation to communities that have been 
adversely affected by military downsizing. And we have worked very hard 
to accelerate the rate at which we work with communities that have had 
military downsizing, to give them back the resources that they can use 
to rebuild their communities. In many places, we've had a lot of 
success; in some places we haven't.
    Secondly, I think it's important that in areas like yours the United 
States gives greater economic incentives for new investment to diversify 
the economy. One of the things that I have asked the Congress to do in 
my balanced budget plan is to more than double the number of empowerment 
zones and enterprise communities from the numbers we have now in the new 
plan, so we can give real incentives for people to invest their money 
and to create good, stable, long-term jobs in areas with high 
unemployment rates.
    If there's anything else you can think of I can do, I'll be happy to 
do it. If there's anything we should have done in the defense downsizing 
to benefit your area that we haven't done, I'll be happy to look into 
that. But I think the main thing we have to do at the national level is 
to keep the economy strong and then to create extra incentives for 
people--like people we're trying to move from welfare to work where I 
proposed some special incentives--or for places with high unemployment 
rates, so that we can more uniformly spread economic opportunity.
    When you see that America has a 5.2 percent unemployment rate, 
that's very misleading. We have a lot of States with unemployment rates 
below 4 percent now. We have within States a lot of communities with 
unemployment rates below 5.2 percent. But we still have places with 
unemployment rates of 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 percent. And so the trick is to 
create the economic incentives that will even out the investment 
patterns. And that's what I'm trying to do. And if you can think of 
anything specific I can do to help you, I hope you'll feel free to 
contact me and let me know.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:17 p.m. at the J.W. Marriott Hotel. In 
his remarks, he referred to Bob Giles, board president, American Society 
of Newspaper Editors.

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