    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [February 11, 1998]
    [Pages 206-208]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Transmittal to the Senate of the Protocols of
    Accession to NATO for Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
    February 11, 1998

        Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President, Madam Secretary,
    Senator Roth, Senator Biden, Senator Lieberman, Senator Mikulski, Senator
    DeWine, Congressman Solomon, Congressman Gejdenson, Deputy
    Secretary of Defense Hamre, NSA Adviser
    Berger, and the other distinguished
    military and diplomatic and citizen guests who are here. I especially
    thank the retired members of the Joint Chiefs who have endorsed NATO
    expansion. And thank you, Secretary Haig and Mr. Brzezinski and Mr.
    Sweeney, for being here. To all the
    diplomatic corps and especially to Minister Kovacs, Minister Geremek, and
    Minister Sedivy, we are pleased that all of
    you are here today.
        This building has seen many negotiations and the signing of many
    pacts to end bloodshed. Now we come together not to sign another
    agreement to end a war but instead to begin a new era of security and
    stability for America and for Europe. In just a moment, I will transmit
    to the Senate for its advice and consent the documents that will add
    Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to NATO. Their addition to the
    alliance is not only a pivotal event in the quest for freedom and
    security by their own people; it is also a major stride forward for
    America, for the alliance, and for the stability and unity of all
    Europe, a big part of our dream that we can in the 21st century create
    for the first time in all history a Europe that is free, at peace, and
    undivided.
        As the Senate takes up consideration of these agreements, the
    question the Members of the

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    Senate must answer is, how does adding these states to NATO advance
    America's national security? I believe there are three compelling
    reasons.
        First, the alliance will make NATO stronger. The cold war has
    passed, but dangers remain. Conflicts like the one in Bosnia, weapons of
    mass destruction, threats we cannot even predict today, require a NATO
    that is strong. A NATO that embraces Europe's new democracies will be
    more capable of carrying out the core mission of defending the territory
    of its members, as well as addressing new kinds of conflicts that
    threaten our common peace.
        These three states will add some 200,000 troops to the alliance. A
    larger NATO will be a better deterrent against aggressors of the future.
    It will deepen the ranks of those who stand with us should deterrents
    fail. I am pleased that just last week 60 of America's top retired
    military leaders, including 5 former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of
    Staff, underscored that message when they said these 3 states will make
    NATO stronger. They are right, and we have already seen the proof.
        As we speak, Czech, Hungarian, and Polish troops are participating
    in NATO's peacekeeping effort in Bosnia. They served beside us in the
    Gulf war, where they made a significant contribution to our success. And
    they recognize the threat to the world posed today by Saddam
    Hussein and by his efforts to develop weapons
    of mass destruction. I am pleased that all three countries have
    announced that they are prepared to serve and support with us as
    appropriate, should military action prove necessary.
        We all hope we can avoid the use of force. But let's face it, in the
    end, that is up to Saddam Hussein. He must
    let the weapons inspectors back with full and free access to all suspect
    sites. If he will not act, we must be prepared to do so.
        The second reason NATO must grow is that it will make Europe more
    stable. NATO can do for Europe's East what it did for Europe's West
    after the Second World War, provide a secure climate in which democracy
    and prosperity can grow. Enlarging NATO will encourage prospective
    members to resolve their differences peacefully. We already see evidence
    of that. Already, the 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. Enlargement, therefore, will make all of Europe more stable.
        Finally, NATO's growth will erase the artificial line in Europe
    drawn by Joseph Stalin. Behind me is a picture of the wall that for so
    long represented the false and forced division of the European
    continent. It has been nearly 10 years since that wall was torn down by
    brave people on both sides. Countries once confined by it now are truly
    free, with strong democracies, vibrant market economies, a proven track
    record of standing up for peace and security beyond their own borders.
    NATO cannot maintain the old Iron Curtain as its permanent eastern
    frontier. It must and can bring Europe together in security, not keep it
    apart in instability.
        In the 20th century, we have learned the hard way here in America
    just how vital Europe's security is to our own. Enlarging NATO will make
    us safer.
        Our goal is and remains the creation of an undivided democratic and
    peaceful Europe for the first time in history. Bringing the three
    nations into the alliance will advance it; so will NATO's new Founding
    Act with Russia and the broad new relationship we are building with
    Moscow, helping us to move forward on arms control, building the peace
    in Bosnia, achieving progress on a wide range of issues; so will the
    Partnership For Peace, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the
    Charter with Ukraine, and the Charter of Partnership I signed just last
    month with the presidents of the three Baltic States, and our Southeast
    Europe Action Plan, which I announced yesterday with President
    Stoyanov of Bulgaria.
        Our effort to build a new Europe also depends upon keeping NATO's
    door open to other qualified European democracies. History teaches us
    that the realm of freedom in Europe has no fixed boundaries. The United
    States is determined that the visions of the past not circumscribe the
    boundaries of the future.
        As the Senate begins it deliberations, I want to salute the
    indispensable role that leading members of both parties and both Houses
    of Congress have already played in bringing us to this day. The two
    Senators from Delaware have already been acknowledged, and, Mr. Vice
    President, I'm prepared to vote to move NATO headquarters to Wilmington.
    [Laughter] I thank the Senators and the Members of the House who are
    here today. And there are others, who

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    know who they are--and we know who they are--who have played a very
    constructive role in this process.
        I was especially pleased that a bipartisan group of Members joined
    me last summer at the NATO Summit in Madrid. The wide-ranging debate on
    this issue within Congress and across our Nation is indeed a model of
    the kind of thoughtful, nonpartisan discussion we must have, and I
    commend Congress for helping to lead it.
        Now the decision rests in the hands of the Senate, and I believe
    it's in good hands.
        This room is named for Benjamin Franklin, one of America's first
    envoys to Europe after independence. I'm reminded of the comment he made
    at the close of our Constitutional Convention. He noted that on the
    chair of the Convention's President, George Washington, was a painted
    figure of the Sun, a symbol, he thought, of our new Republic. Mr.
    Franklin said, ``I have the happiness to know it is rising and not a
    setting Sun.'' In the wake of the cold war, some wondered whether our
    alliance faced a rising or a setting Sun, whether it had just a
    brilliant past or perhaps an even brighter future. With the step we take
    today, and the decision I am confident the Senate will take in the near
    future, I know that our historic partnership of nations is a rising Sun
    and that its ascendance will bring a more stable, more democratic, more
    peaceful, more unified future for all of us who live on both sides of
    the Atlantic.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. in the Benjamin Franklin Room at
    the State Department. In his remarks, he referred to former Secretary of
    State Alexander M. Haig, Jr.; former National Security Adviser Zbigniew
    Brzezinski; John J. Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO; Foreign Minister Laszlo
    Kovacs of Hungary; Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek of Poland; Foreign
    Minister Jaroslav Sedivy of the Czech Republic; and President Petar
    Stoyanov of Bulgaria.