[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
[May 21, 1998]
[Pages 817-819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on Senate Ratification of the Protocols of Accession to NATO for
Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
May 21, 1998
Thank you very much. I suppose I should begin with an apology for
having to dash off and pick up the paper, but I would hate to lose this
document after all the effort we put into getting to this point.
[Laughter]
Mr. Vice President, thank you for your
leadership on this issue. Senator Roth,
Senator Biden, Secretary
Albright, Secretary Cohen, General Ralston, Mr.
Berger, to the Ambassadors of
Poland, Hungary,
the Czech Republic, and the other members
of the diplomatic corps who are here, to Senators Levin and Lieberman and
Lugar, Mikulski, and Smith, I thank all of you so
much.
Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin, I would like to make a couple
of brief comments.
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First of all, let me say I know that all Americans are heartbroken by
the terrible shooting at the school in Springfield, Oregon, today. And I
would just like to say on behalf of the American people that our
thoughts and prayers are with the families of the people who were killed
and wounded and with that entire fine community.
Next let me say that I welcome the wise decision made less than 24
hours ago by President Soeharto in Indonesia. It now
gives the Indonesian people a chance to come together to build a stable
democracy for the 21st century. I hope that the leaders will now move
forward promptly, with an open and peaceful transition that enjoys broad
public support. Indonesia is a very great nation, populous, wide
ranging, diverse, with remarkable accomplishments to its credit in the
last few decades. It has a great future. The United States stands ready
to work, as we have with other nations in the past, to support
Indonesia's leaders and people as they pursue democratic reform.
Finally, by way of introduction, let me say, since we're here to
talk about Europe today, I'd like to put in one last plug for the vote
in Ireland and Northern Ireland tomorrow. And I suspect all of you agree
with me. And I hope that those fine people will lift the burden of the
last 30 years from their shoulders and embrace a common future in peace.
Let me say notwithstanding my good friend Senator Biden's overly
generous remarks, we are here today because of the efforts of a lot of
people who supported this effort: Members of Congress and former Members
of Congress, present and former national security officials, present and
former military leaders, representatives of our veterans, business
unions, religious groups, ethnic communities. I especially thank
Senators Lott and
Daschle, Senators Helms and Biden, and you, Senator Roth, the chairman of our NATO observer group.
You behaved in the great tradition of Truman and Marshall and
Vandenberg, uniting our country across party for common values, common
interests, and a common future.
It's really amazing, isn't it, that Bill Roth and Joe Biden come from
Delaware. I want you to know there is no truth to the rumor that I
agreed to move the NATO headquarters to Wilmington in return for this
vote. [Laughter] However, it does say a lot for those small States that
these two remarkable men have made such an indispensable contribution to
this effort. I thank the other Senators who are here for their
passionate commitments.
I'd also like to mention one other person, my adviser on NATO
enlargement who managed the ratification process for the White House,
Jeremy Rosner. Thank you, Jeremy. You did a
great job, too, and we thank you.
I see so many people here that--and I don't want to get into calling
names, but I thank Mr. Brzezinski,
Ambassador Kirkpatrick, General
Joulwan, and so many others who are here
who have been a part of America's effort over the last 50 years to make
sure that, after World War II, freedom triumphs.
We learned, at great cost in this century, that, if we wanted
America to be secure at home, we had to stand up for our interests, our
ideals, and our friends around the world. Because of the alliances we've
built and the work that our people have been able to do here, we near
the end of this great century at a remarkable pinnacle of peace, with
prosperity and declining social problems at home, and for the very first
time ever, a majority of the world's people living under governments of
their own choosing.
Since World War II, no alliance for freedom has been more important
or enduring than NATO. And as we look ahead to the next 50 years, we
have to imagine what the world will be like and what it is we expect to
do and, in particular, in this case, what about NATO. Today we welcome
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, finally erasing the boundary line
the cold war artificially imposed on the continent of Europe,
strengthening an alliance that now, clearly, is better preserved to keep
the peace and preserve our security into the 21st century.
For the 16 of us already in NATO, enlarging our alliance will create
three new allies ready to contribute troops and technology and ingenuity
to protecting our territory, defending our security, and pursuing our
vital interests. The 60 million people who live in Hungary, Poland, and
the Czech Republic, they now know that what they build in peace, they
will be able to keep in security. And America now knows that we have new
allies to help us meet the new security challenges of the 21st century,
something that our partnership in Bosnia so clearly demonstrates.
I would say also to the nations who have joined with us in the
Partnership For Peace, and others who have considered doing so, and
those who hope still someday to become NATO
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members, we are in the process of adapting this organization to the
security challenges of the 21st century, and those who are with us in
the Partnership For Peace, those who have been part of our endeavor in
Bosnia, we appreciate you as well. We respect your aspirations for
security; we share your devotion to your freedom; and we hope this is a
day which you can celebrate as well.
We come to this day thanks to many acts of courage: courage that
toppled the Berlin Wall, ended the cold war; sacrifice by those who
raised freedom's banner in Budapest in 1956, in Prague in 1968, in
Gdansk in 1980; people like Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Arpad Goncz, so
many others. The selfless investment of blood and treasure the American
people made in European freedom in the 20th century is also something we
ought to stop and remember here today. There are so many people whose
families gave so much in two World Wars and the cold war who should feel
a personal sense of satisfaction and triumph because of this day. And I
hope they do.
As we look ahead to the 21st century, again I say, we have to see
what we're doing in NATO in the larger context of preparing for a
different era. Our goal is to help to build a Europe that is undivided,
free, democratic, at peace, and secure, a Europe in which Russia,
Ukraine, and other states of the former Soviet Union join with us to
make common cause; a dynamic new Europe with partnership for commerce
and cooperation. Therefore, we have supported the expansion of NATO and
the Partnership For Peace. We have also supported all efforts at
European integration and the expansion of European institutions to
welcome new democracies. And we will continue to do so.
We want to imagine a future in which our children will be much less
likely to cross the Atlantic to fight and die in a war, but much more
likely to find partners in security, in cultural and commercial and
educational endeavors. The expansion of NATO and the Partnership For
Peace make the positive outcome much more probable.
This is a day for celebration but also a day for looking ahead. Our
work to adapt all our institutions to the challenges of the new century
is far from done. On Monday, I had the opportunity to go to Geneva to
lay out a seven-point plan for the changes, I believe, the world trading
system must embrace in order to fully and faithfully serve free people
in the 21st century.
And just very briefly before I close, let me mention the things that
I believe we still have to do with NATO. We have to build closer ties
with the Partnership For Peace members. We have to reinforce the
practical cooperation between NATO and Russia, and NATO and Ukraine. We
have to see through our efforts to secure a lasting peace in the
Balkans, and we cannot walk away until the job is done. We must achieve
deeper reductions in our nuclear forces and lower the limits on
conventional arms across the European continent.
Yes, we have more work to do, but for today, we remind the people of
Europe that in the efforts that lie ahead, they can continue to count on
the United States. And we remind the world that tomorrow, as yesterday,
America will defend its values, protect its interests, and stand by its
friends. So that years from now another generation may gather in this
place and bask in the warm glow of liberty's light, because in our time
we fulfilled America's eternal mission: to deepen the meaning of
freedom, to widen the circle of opportunity, to strengthen the bonds of
our union among ourselves and with others who believe in the primary
importance of liberty and human dignity.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 1:35 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to Ambassador to the U.S. Jerzy
Kozminski and former President Lech Walesa of Poland; Ambassador to the
U.S. Gyorgy Banlaki and President Arpad Goncz of Hungary; Ambassador to
the U.S. Aleksandr Vondra and President Vaclav Havel of the Czech
Republic; former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; former
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane J. Kirkpatrick; and Gen.
George A. Joulwan, USA (Ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.