[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

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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.