[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[April 23, 1999]
[Page 611]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 611]]


Remarks at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 50th Anniversary 
Summit Dinner
April 23, 1999

    Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the White House and, again let me 
say, welcome to Washington and to the NATO Summit.
    Some of you know that I am quite a fan of music. And I found a 
little-known bit of history related to the founding of NATO 50 years 
ago. When the original North Atlantic Treaty was signed, the United 
States Marine Band, which was in the auditorium playing for us today, 
was in the auditorium then, playing a group of songs from George 
Gershwin's famous opera, ``Porgy and Bess.'' The two songs they played 
were ``I Got Plenty of Nothing'' and ``It Ain't Necessarily So.'' Well, 
I think after 50 years we can still appreciate Gershwin, but the songs 
were poorly timed, because NATO has had plenty of substance, and its 
word has been necessarily so.
    In 1949 when we entered NATO, it signaled a radical departure in 
America's history because we had been warned from the time of our first 
President, George Washington, against entangling alliances with other 
nations. But we learned the hard way after World War I that the warning 
was no longer valid in the 20th century.
    In the last 50 years, all of us have become more and more involved 
with events beyond our borders because we have seen increasingly how 
they affect the lives of people within our borders and how the values we 
espouse at home must be defended abroad. That is in large measure what 
we are trying to do in Kosovo, to protect the innocent families, the 
children, and to stand for the values that we have stood for as an 
organization for 50 years now.
    We owe a great debt of gratitude to our founders, to the generation 
of people after the Second World War who constructed a world of freedom 
that stood against tyranny and eventually helped to end the cold war. We 
can best pay that debt by standing up for those values today, including 
meeting our responsibilities to the children and the future of 
southeastern Europe in the terrible suffering of Kosovo.
    Mr. Secretary General, I want to say a 
special word of thanks to you for your steadfast leadership, for your 
continuing reminder to all of us that we must both do our duty and stay 
together as we do it. Tomorrow we will focus on Kosovo again, but we 
will also look to the larger issues of the 21st century. Again, I 
compliment you on your leadership, and I thank all of our colleagues for 
their input.
    We will look back on this summit, I think, and say, ``Well, it 
wasn't one of those traditional meetings, where we got to have a lot of 
fun and a lot of laughs, because we were so gravely concerned with the 
suffering of the people in the Balkans. But it was a profoundly 
important one because it reminded us of why we got started, what we have 
to do tomorrow, and what it is that gives our Alliance meaning in this 
present day.''
    I'd like to ask all of you to join me in a toast to Secretary 
General and Mrs. Solana, and to NATO and its future. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:30 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary General Javier Solana of 
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and his wife, Concepcion. The 
transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included 
the remarks of Secretary General Solana.