[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[April 23, 1999]
[Pages 606-607]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization Commemorative Ceremony
April 23, 1999

    Mr. Secretary General, leaders of NATO, 
other distinguished foreign guests, my fellow Americans. It is a 
profound honor for the United States to welcome NATO back to Washington 
for its 50th anniversary, an occasion to honor NATO's past, to reaffirm 
its present mission in Kosovo, to envision its future.
    In 1949, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, the American 
novelist William Faulkner acknowledged the fear of nuclear holocaust 
that then gripped the world. But he declared firmly that humanity will 
not merely endure, it will prevail. In that same year, 12 nations came 
here to pledge to vindicate that faith. They were North Americans and 
Europeans determined to build a new Europe on the ruins of the old 
through a mutual commitment to each other's security and freedom.
    In this auditorium, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, 
said that NATO's fundamental aim was not to win a war that would, after 
all, leave Europe ravaged but to avoid such a war, and I quote, ``by 
becoming, together, strong enough to safeguard the peace.'' He was 
right. No member of NATO has ever been called upon to fire a shot in 
anger to defend an ally from attack.
    The American Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, said that NATO would 
``free the minds of men in many nations from a haunting sense of 
insecurity and enable them to work and plan with confidence in the 
future.'' And he was right. NATO bought time for the Marshall plan. It 
encouraged allies to pool their military and economic strength, instead 
of pitting it against their neighbors.
    The Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson, predicted that the 
NATO Pact's achievement would ``extend beyond the time of emergency 
which gave it birth, or the geographical area which it now includes.'' 
And he, too, was right. NATO gave hope to West Germany and confidence to 
Greece and Turkey. Ultimately, NATO helped break the grip of the cold 
war. Yesterday, Europe divided by an arbitrary line: on one side, free 
people living in fear of aggression; on the other, people living in 
tyranny who wanted to be free. Today, thanks in no small measure to 
NATO, most of Europe is free and at peace.
    Today we are joined by the leaders of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech 
Republic, whose descent into darkness helped to spark NATO's creation. 
Today they are a part of NATO, pledged to defend what was too long 
denied to them. So we say to Prime Minister Orban, President Havel, President 
Kwasniewski: Welcome to NATO, welcome 
home to the community of freedom.
    As we look to the future, we know that for the first time in history 
we have a chance to build a Europe truly undivided, peaceful, and free. 
But we know there are challenges to that vision: in the fragility of new 
democracies; in the proliferation of deadly weapons and terrorism; and 
surely, in the awful specter of ethnic cleansing in southeast Europe, 
where Mr. Milosevic--first in Croatia and 
Slovenia, then in Bosnia, now in Kosovo--has inflamed ancient

[[Page 607]]

hatreds to gain and maintain his power. He is bent on dehumanizing, 
indeed, destroying a whole people and their culture and, in the process, 
driving his own people to deep levels of distress.
    We're in Kosovo because we want to replace ethnic cleansing with 
tolerance and decency, violence with security, disintegration with 
restoration, isolation with integration into the rest of the region and 
the continent. We want southeastern Europe to travel the same road as 
Western Europe half a century ago and Central Europe a decade ago.
    But we are fundamentally there because the Alliance will not have 
meaning in the 21st century if it permits the slaughter of innocents on 
its doorstep. This is not a question of territorial conquest or 
political domination but standing for the values that made NATO possible 
in the first place.
    This is the mission of NATO at the age of 50 on the edge of a new 
century, determined to reach forward into the future with a united 
continent, with a collective defense, remaining open to new members from 
the Baltics to the Black Sea, remaining committed to work with partners 
for peace and progress, including Russia and Ukraine, and others who are 
willing to work for the values and the future we dream of. This is the 
kind of alliance we come to this summit to reaffirm and to build for the 
future.
    Almost 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt said something 
that could well be applied to a united Europe and to our united 
transatlantic Alliance today. Of America's coming of age in the world, 
he said, ``We have no choice as to whether we will play a great part in 
the world. That has been determined for us by fate, by the march of 
events. The only question is whether we will play it well or ill.''
    Our nations played our part well after World War II, from the Berlin 
airlift to the founding of NATO, to the restoration of hope and 
confidence in Western Europe. We played it well after the cold war, from 
the reunification of Germany to the enlargement of NATO, to the support 
we have offered democratic open government in Russia and Ukraine, and 
the reach out we have done to other partners for peace. We played it 
well when we joined together to end the slaughter in Bosnia.
    Now we rise, as we must, to this new and fundamental challenge to 
the peace and humanity of Europe. Our message is clear: Peace and 
humanity will prevail in Kosovo. The refugees will go home; they will 
have security; they will have their self-government. The last European 
dictatorship of the 20th century will not destroy Europe's long-awaited 
chance to live, at last, together in peace and freedom.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 1:15 p.m. in the Mellon 
Auditorium. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary General Javier 
Solana of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Prime Minister Viktor 
Orban of Hungary; President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic; 
President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland; and President Slobodan 
Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). 
The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also 
included the remarks of Secretary General Solana.