    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [July 3, 1997]
    [Pages 912-915]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a NATO Summit Sendoff by American Veterans
    July 3, 1997

        Thank you very much. I know a good doctor. United States Navy.
    [Laughter]
        Mr. Vice President, Commander Frank, Colonel Harmon, Secretary
    Albright, Secretary Cohen, Ambassador Richardson, Mr. Berger,

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    General Shalikashvili and General Ralston and members of the Joint
    Chiefs; to the distinguished veterans and community leaders here,
    especially to Judge Waters. You know, when he told that horse story, I
    nearly fell out of my chair. [Laughter] But you didn't know what I was
    thinking. [Laughter] I was thinking, there have been several days here
    in the last 4\1/2\ years when I would be grateful just to have been
    called what that doctor called him. [Laughter]
        Before I begin, I would like to state what I hope is obvious now,
    but I've never said it formally, and that is that I intend to nominate
    Deputy Secretary Gober to be the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs. We
    have been friends for many years. He did a superb job as the State
    director of veterans affairs in our home State. He was a good partner
    and support to Jesse Brown, who fulfilled his promise to me to be a
    Secretary for as well as a Secretary of Veterans Affairs. And I believe
    that Hershel will serve in that great tradition, and I thank him for
    agreeing to do so.
        Tomorrow, as the Vice President said, we will commemorate
    Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence, which I recommend
    everyone read every Independence Day. The words still ring out of our
    abiding belief in the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the
    pursuit of happiness.
        And we have a lot to celebrate on this July 4th. We are at peace. We
    are more prosperous than we have been in a generation, our liberty more
    secure than ever. And for the first time throughout the world--for the
    first time in our time, there are more people living under governments
    of their own choosing than are living under dictatorships. That is an
    astonishing thing, that the dream of our Founding Fathers, articulated
    so powerfully 221 years ago tomorrow, has now come within the reach of
    more than half the people on the globe.
        Next week we will take a historic step to secure that freedom for
    more people than ever before, at home and abroad, when we invite new
    democracies from Central Europe to join our alliance at the NATO Summit
    in Madrid. I thank those who have spoken before me for their support.
    Together with our efforts to build NATO's ties to Russia and to Ukraine,
    and through the Partnership For Peace with so many other of Europe's
    democracies, we're working to create a continent of Europe that is
    undivided, democratic, and at peace for the first time since nation-
    states appeared on that continent.
        Our Nation has labored and sacrificed for this goal for more than
    five decades now, and now it is within reach. So in Europe next week
    we'll have the chance to strengthen the values we all hold dear:
    freedom, democracy, security. Our work in Madrid will be a capstone of
    our Nation's leadership throughout the 20th century and a cornerstone
    for a new age of possibility in the 21st century.
        I saw in one of the papers today a poll that said that only 6
    percent of the American people felt that they followed events in NATO
    closely and thought they knew a lot about it. In a way, that is a
    stunning tribute to the success of NATO, for no NATO member has ever
    been attacked. If it had not been so, a lot more people would know about
    NATO.
        Now the time has come for us to make sure more Americans understand
    the significance of NATO to our security, understand the role it can
    play in the future, and understand why it is profoundly in the interest
    of the American people to go forward with this expansion. And all the
    people on this stage today and all of you in this room today have helped
    to make a significant contribution to that work. But I hope when you
    leave here, you will continue to speak about it to your friends and
    neighbors, to the members of your organizations, to the people with whom
    you come in contact.
        There are four reasons why NATO enlargement is consistent with our
    values and supports our interests. First, it will make our alliance
    stronger and better able to address the challenges to Europe's security.
    As has already been said, if we haven't learned a single, solitary other
    lesson from the 20th century, surely we have learned that our future and
    Europe's are inevitably intertwined.
        A NATO that embraces Europe's new democracies will be more capable
    of carrying out its missions, defending the territory of its members,
    addressing conflicts that threaten our common peace. The Czechs and
    Poles served beside American soldiers in the Gulf war. Already, the
    Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Baltic States, and many
    other Central European countries that seek to join NATO are contributing
    troops to our NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

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        Indeed, we could not have deployed our troops to Bosnia as smoothly
    and swiftly as we did without the critical help of Hungary and our
    staging ground at Taszar, which I had the privilege to visit shortly
    after it was established. By bringing new and capable democracies into
    NATO and deepening our cooperation with others who are not members at
    this time but are part of our Partnership For Peace, we build a stronger
    alliance for all future challenges to transatlantic security.
        Second, enlarging NATO will plainly help to secure the gains of
    democracy in Europe. NATO can do for Europe's east what it did for
    Europe's west after World War II, provide the kind of climate necessary
    for freedom and prosperity to survive and to grow and flourish.
        Third, enlarging NATO clearly will encourage prospective members to
    resolve their differences peacefully, and that will reduce the chances
    of further conflicts in Europe. Already, the very prospect of NATO
    membership has helped to convince countries in Central Europe to improve
    ties with their neighbors, to settle border and ethnic disputes, any one
    of which could have led to a conflict in a different time and under
    different circumstances.
        Finally, enlarging NATO will erase the artificial line in Europe
    drawn by Stalin at the end of World War II. And NATO will now help
    Europe to come together in security, not be kept apart in instability.
    NATO's doors will remain open to all those willing to shoulder the
    responsibilities of membership so that we do not replace an old division
    in Europe with a new one. And this is also critically important. The
    decision the NATO allies will make in Madrid must not be a one-time
    decision.
        Today let me again say I thank the American Legion for its support.
    As the largest American veterans organization, many of your members
    fought to liberate Europe or to defend freedom there during the cold
    war. And you know that this makes it less likely that future generations
    will be called to fight and die in Europe.
        I thank the Reserve Officer Association. Your endorsement speaks
    clearly to the American people because it is you who could be called out
    of your civilian lives to make good on our commitments. And you have
    recognized that enlargement will make us safer and stronger.
        There are those who say the Central European nations who will be
    invited to join NATO are not ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with
    us. But with all respect, they are wrong. The nations we are considering
    for membership share our values and our aspirations. They have shown
    that time and again. They also have the capacity to do what is required
    of NATO members.
        As you have heard today, in 1944, in the weeks after D-Day, American
    and allied troops in Normandy sought to encircle 20 of Hitler's finest
    divisions, and some of the fiercest fighting of the war resulted. Our
    forces raced to seal the final gap between them and to prevent the enemy
    from escaping into the French countryside. Two units got the job done,
    one an American infantry division, the other a Polish armored division,
    survivors of the invasion of their land who joined forces with the
    Allies.
        That gap was closed when the Poles finally linked up with the U.S.
    90th Infantry at Chambois. The first American they encountered was the
    man who introduced me today, Captain Laughlin Waters. Now, once the
    pocket was shut there was another furious battle as the Panzers tried to
    break out. The Polish First Armored Division held a critical hilltop
    against a wave of counterattacks. When the Poles ran out of antitank
    rounds, they moved forward and repelled the enemy with only their rifles
    and their courage. After the battle of Falaise Gap, 325 Polish soldiers
    were buried near where they fell. By these graves in the heart of
    Western Europe, Allied soldiers raised a simple sign of tribute which
    said in English, ``A Polish Battlefield.''
        Judge Waters, your presence here today, 53 years later, reminds us
    of the character of those we are about to add to NATO, of the values and
    interests I talked about before. They remind us of our own freedom,
    democracy, and security. They, too, have fought and died for freedom and
    democracy, for ours as well as their own. They have fought and died for
    the freedom and democracy we celebrate tomorrow. Our ties, therefore,
    have been forged in blood. And just as they were strong allies in World
    War II, they will be again.
        So, Judge Waters, just as you and your men closed the Falaise Gap at
    Chambois, we must now close another gap, the gap of hope that has
    divided Europe since the end of World War II. We must give Europe a
    chance to live free and undivided for the first time ever. That is what
    we will do next week and in the months and years ahead, as we continue
    to work with

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    Europe's democracies, strengthen NATO, and adapt it to the missions of
    the 21st century.
        Your presence here today has made our success much more likely, and
    therefore, you will have something else to celebrate tomorrow on our
    Independence Day.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:29 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Joseph J. Frank, national
    commander, American Legion; Herb Harmon, president, Reserve Officers
    Association of the United States; and Laughlin Edward Waters, Senior
    Judge, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.