    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [March 24, 1999]
    [Pages 451-453]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 451]]

    Address to the Nation on Airstrikes Against Serbian Targets in the
    Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)
    March 24, 1999

        My fellow Americans, today our Armed Forces joined our NATO Allies
    in airstrikes against Serbian forces responsible for the brutality in
    Kosovo. We have acted with resolve for several reasons.
        We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a
    mounting military offensive. We act to prevent a wider war, to defuse a
    powder keg at the heart of Europe that has exploded twice before in this
    century with catastrophic results. And we act to stand united with our
    allies for peace. By acting now, we are upholding our values, protecting
    our interests, and advancing the cause of peace.
        Tonight I want to speak to you about the tragedy in Kosovo and why
    it matters to America that we work with our allies to end it. First, let
    me explain what it is we are responding to. Kosovo is a province of
    Serbia, in the middle of southeastern Europe, about 160 miles east of
    Italy. That's less than the distance between Washington and New York and
    only about 70 miles north of Greece. Its people are mostly ethnic
    Albanian and mostly Muslim.
        In 1989 Serbia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic, the same leader who started the wars in Bosnia and
    Croatia and moved against Slovenia in the last decade, stripped Kosovo
    of the constitutional autonomy its people enjoyed, thus denying them
    their right to speak their language, run their schools, shape their
    daily lives. For years, Kosovars struggled peacefully to get their
    rights back. When President Milosevic sent his troops and police to
    crush them, the struggle grew violent.
        Last fall our diplomacy, backed by the threat of force from our NATO
    Alliance, stopped the fighting for a while and rescued tens of thousands
    of people from freezing and starvation in the hills where they had fled
    to save their lives. And last month, with our allies and Russia, we
    proposed a peace agreement to end the fighting for good. The Kosovar
    leaders signed that agreement last week. Even though it does not give
    them all they want, even though their people were still being savaged,
    they saw that a just peace is better than a long and unwinnable war.
        The Serbian leaders, on the other hand, refused even to discuss key
    elements of the peace agreement. As the Kosovars were saying yes to
    peace, Serbia stationed 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo in
    preparation for a major offensive--and in clear violation of the
    commitments they had made.
        Now they've started moving from village to village, shelling
    civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken
    from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt, and sprayed with bullets;
    Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together,
    lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not war in the traditional
    sense. It is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely defenseless
    people whose leaders already have agreed to peace.
        Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important to
    America's national interest. Take a look at this map. Kosovo is a small
    place, but it sits on a major fault line between Europe, Asia, and the
    Middle East, at the meeting place of Islam and both the Western and
    Orthodox branches of Christianity. To the south are our allies Greece
    and Turkey; to the north, our new democratic allies in central Europe.
    And all around Kosovo, there are other small countries struggling with
    their own economic and political challenges, countries that could be
    overwhelmed by a large, new wave of refugees from Kosovo. All the
    ingredients for a major war are there: ancient grievances; struggling
    democracies; and in the center of it all, a dictator in Serbia who has
    done nothing since the cold war ended but start new wars and pour
    gasoline on the flames of ethnic and religious division.
        Sarajevo, the capital of neighboring Bosnia, is where World War I
    began. World War II and the Holocaust engulfed this region. In both
    wars, Europe was slow to recognize the dangers, and the United States
    waited even longer to enter the conflicts. Just imagine if leaders back
    then had acted wisely and early enough, how many lives could have been
    saved, how many Americans would not have had to die.
        We learned some of the same lessons in Bosnia just a few years ago.
    The world did not act early enough to stop that war, either. And

    [[Page 452]]

    let's not forget what happened: innocent people herded into
    concentration camps, children gunned down by snipers on their way to
    school, soccer fields and parks turned into cemeteries, a quarter of a
    million people killed, not because of anything they have done but
    because of who they were. Two million Bosnians became refugees. This was
    genocide in the heart of Europe, not in 1945 but in 1995; not in some
    grainy newsreel from our parents' and grandparents' time but in our own
    time, testing our humanity and our resolve.
        At the time, many people believed nothing could be done to end the
    bloodshed in Bosnia. They said, ``Well, that's just the way those people
    in the Balkans are.'' But when we and our allies joined with courageous
    Bosnians to stand up to the aggressors, we helped to end the war. We
    learned that in the Balkans, inaction in the face of brutality simply
    invites more brutality, but firmness can stop armies and save lives. We
    must apply that lesson in Kosovo before what happened in Bosnia happens
    there, too.
        Over the last few months we have done everything we possibly could
    to solve this problem peacefully. Secretary Albright has worked
    tirelessly for a negotiated agreement. Mr. Milosevic has refused. On Sunday I sent Ambassador Dick
    Holbrooke to Serbia to make clear to
    him again, on behalf of the United States and our NATO Allies, that he
    must honor his own commitments and stop his repression, or face military
    action. Again, he refused.
        Today we and our 18 NATO Allies agreed to do what we said we would
    do, what we must do to restore the peace. Our mission is clear: to
    demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's purpose so that the Serbian
    leaders understand the imperative of reversing course; to deter an even
    bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo; and, if
    necessary, to seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm
    the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to
    make war.
        Now, I want to be clear with you, there are risks in this military
    action, risks to our pilots and the people on the ground. Serbia's air
    defenses are strong. It could decide to intensify its assault on Kosovo
    or to seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere. If it does, we will
    deliver a forceful response.
        Hopefully, Mr. Milosevic will realize
    his present course is self-destructive and unsustainable. If he decides
    to accept the peace agreement and demilitarize Kosovo, NATO has agreed
    to help to implement it with a peacekeeping force. If NATO is invited to
    do so, our troops should take part in that mission to keep the peace.
    But I do not intend to put our troops in Kosovo to fight a war.
        Do our interests in Kosovo justify the dangers to our Armed Forces?
    I've thought long and hard about that question. I am convinced that the
    dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting--
    dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests. If we and
    our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response,
    President Milosevic would read our
    hesitation as a license to kill. There would be many more massacres,
    tens of thousands more refugees, more victims crying out for revenge.
        Right now our firmness is the only hope the people of Kosovo have to
    be able to live in their own country without having to fear for their
    own lives. Remember, we asked them to accept peace, and they did. We
    asked them to promise to lay down their arms, and they agreed. We
    pledged that we, the United States and the other 18 nations of NATO,
    would stick by them if they did the right thing. We cannot let them down
    now.
        Imagine what would happen if we and our allies instead decided just
    to look the other way, as these people were massacred on NATO's
    doorstep. That would discredit NATO, the cornerstone on which our
    security has rested for 50 years now.
        We must also remember that this is a conflict with no natural
    national boundaries. Let me ask you to look again at a map. The red dots
    are towns the Serbs have attacked. The arrows show the movement of
    refugees north, east, and south. Already, this movement is threatening
    the young democracy in Macedonia, which has its own Albanian minority
    and a Turkish minority. Already, Serbian forces have made forays into
    Albania from which Kosovars have drawn support. Albania has a Greek
    minority. Let a fire burn here in this area, and the flames will spread.
    Eventually, key U.S. allies could be drawn into a wider conflict, a war
    we would be forced to confront later, only at far greater risk and
    greater cost.

    [[Page 453]]

        I have a responsibility as President to deal with problems such as
    this before they do permanent harm to our national interests. America
    has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying to
    save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom, and stability in
    Europe. That is what we are doing in Kosovo.
        If we've learned anything from the century drawing to a close, it is
    that if America is going to be prosperous and secure, we need a Europe
    that is prosperous, secure, undivided, and free. We need a Europe that
    is coming together, not falling apart, a Europe that shares our values
    and shares the burdens of leadership. That is the foundation on which
    the security of our children will depend.
        That is why I have supported the political and economic unification
    of Europe. That is why we brought Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
    Republic into NATO, and redefined its missions, and reached out to
    Russia and Ukraine for new partnerships.
        Now, what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, secure,
    united, stable Europe? The challenge of strengthening a partnership with
    a democratic Russia that, despite our disagreements, is a constructive
    partner in the work of building peace; the challenge of resolving the
    tension between Greece and Turkey and building bridges with the Islamic
    world; and finally, the challenge of ending instability in the Balkans
    so that these bitter ethnic problems in Europe are resolved by the force
    of argument, not the force of arms, so that future generations of
    Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic to fight another terrible
    war.
        It is this challenge that we and our allies are facing in Kosovo.
    That is why we have acted now: because we care about saving innocent
    lives; because we have an interest in avoiding an even crueler and
    costlier war; and because our children need and deserve a peaceful,
    stable, free Europe.
        Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of
    our Armed Forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our
    values and our children's future.
        May God bless them, and may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:01 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of
    the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and U.S.
    Special Envoy Richard C. Holbrooke.