[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[January 5, 2001]
[Pages 2829-2832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at an Armed Forces Tribute to the President




in Arlington, Virginia
January 5, 2001

    Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. First, I would like to 
thank Secretary Cohen for his kind and 
generous remarks and even more for his outstanding leadership of the 
Department of Defense.
    I must say, Bill, when I asked you to 
become Secretary of Defense, in an attempt to strengthen the bipartisan 
or, indeed, nonpartisan support for the Defense Department among the 
American people and the Congress, I didn't know that I was the first 
President in history to ask an elected official of the opposite party to 
hold that job. Shoot, I might not have done it if I had known that. 
[Laughter]
    It's one of those occasions where ignorance was wisdom, because 
you brought to the challenge a sharp mind, 
a fierce integrity, a loving heart for the men and women in uniform. 
Your wife, Janet, touched people who 
serve in our military forces all around the world in a unique and 
special way. And I'm glad that you believe this is the most important 
service of your 31-year career. But on this, sir, you gave as good as 
you got, and we thank you.
    And General Shelton, I want to thank 
you. I will never forget the day when General Shelton, in his previous 
command post, stepped out of the boat, into the water, onto the beach in 
Haiti in his boots and his beret. I think he could have gone alone and 
prevailed just as well as he did with the help of the others who went 
with him.
    I'll never forget the time I came to your office, sir, in your previous job, and I looked on the 
wall and there was a picture of Stonewall Jackson. And I said to myself, 
``I wonder if Stonewall Jackson would be a Democrat or a Republican if 
he were alive today.'' I've often commented to General Shelton that we 
have made--he, Secretary Cohen, and I--an unpredictable but, I think, 
quite a successful team. And you have been a great Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, sir--a great Chairman, and

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we thank you. And we thank Carolyn for her 
leadership, as well.
    I thank Deputy Secretary Rudy de Leon, 
for the many capacities in which he has served since the first days of 
this administration. Thank you, Secretary Slater, today, for what you have done as Secretary of 
Transportation with the Coast Guard. I thank the Service Secretaries, 
General Myers, the Service Chiefs, the 
other officers here, and enlisted personnel.
    I thank especially the members of the White House, my Chief of 
Staff, John Podesta, my National Security 
Adviser, Sandy Berger, for the work that 
they have done with me on issues relating to the Armed Forces.
    And I thank you for the medals you gave to Hillary and me. We were 
honored to receive them, but far more honored to spend the last 8 years 
in contact with the 1.4 million men and women on active duty, the more 
than 850,000 men and women serving in the Guard and Reserves--those who 
keep us secure and advance the cause of peace and freedom.
    There is no greater honor in being President than to be Commander in 
Chief of these magnificent people, so many of them so very young. They 
are at the disposal of the President to defend our interests, to advance 
our values, to realize our vision. Most of the time, they do it with all 
the gusto and fervor of youth, all the discipline that long training 
brings. But on occasion, they do it at the cost of their all too young 
lives. We saw it most recently in the U.S.S. Cole, but every year, in 
ways that don't make the headlines, about 200 of these young people give 
their lives just doing their jobs.
    No one who has not held this job can possibly understand the awesome 
sense of humility and honor and the sense of strength and capacity it 
brings to any President, to know that there are people like these who 
have sworn their lives and fortunes and sacred honor for the United 
States.
    In July of 1776 our first Commander in Chief, George Washington, 
ordered American troops to assemble on Manhattan Island in New York, to 
hear the Declaration of Independence read aloud--in full view, I might 
add, of the British forces then landing in Staten Island. He did it 
because he knew how important it was that our troops understand that the 
survival of our new Nation depended upon their success. For over 220 
years now, the survival of our Nation has depended upon the military's 
success, and for over 220 years, our military has succeeded.
    For these last 8 years, as Secretary Cohen chronicled, in a very 
different time, in a world after the cold war, more interdependent than 
ever before, with new conflicts and old demons, the American military 
has again succeeded and succeeded brilliantly. Thanks to you, the world 
is safer, and America stands taller.
    Thanks to you, working with our Korean allies, there is peace in the 
Korean Peninsula and new hope for reconciliation across the last 
dividing line in the cold war.
    Thanks to you, arm-in-arm with an expanded NATO, ethnic cleansing 
and slaughter in the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia and Kosovo, has ended. 
Refugees have returned to their homes. Freedom has a chance to flower. 
Thanks to you, we are closer than ever before to building a Europe that 
for the first time in history is peaceful, undivided, and democratic, a 
Europe where it is far less likely that young Americans will have to 
fight and die in this new century.
    Thanks to you, Iraq has not regained the capability that threatened 
the world or its neighbors with weapons of mass destruction. Thanks to 
you, Haiti is free of dictators; East Timor free of oppression; Africa 
is beginning to prepare itself to solve more of its own problems; Latin 
America has been aided in natural disasters and against 
narcotraffickers; and the United States has led the world in removing 
more landmines than any other nation by far, without sacrificing the 
safety and security of our troops in battle.
    And yet, those are only the headlines. On Christmas Eve, as I do or 
have done every Christmas Eve for the last 8 years, I telephoned a 
number of our men and women in uniform serving a long way from home, 
doing critical work unknown to most but benefiting all Americans. I 
thanked Navy Petty Officer Second Class Mario Solares, who serves in Bahrain, making sure we have the piers, 
the bridges, the towers our vessels need as they protect peace in the 
Persian Gulf.
    I thanked Air Force Staff Sergeant Erin McKenzie, who serves with the 607th Air Support Operations Group 
at Osan Air Base, making sure members of the 7th Air Force get a 
paycheck every 2 weeks as they guard the skies over South Korea.
    I thanked U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Kidder, who serves on a very remote Pacific island,

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an atoll 800 miles west of Hawaii, working to destroy our cold war stock 
of chemical weapons.
    I thanked Marine Staff Sergeant Robert Sheridan, who guards our Embassy in Belarus. He was named Marine 
Security Guard of the Year in 2000, and we know how tough the 
competition is because, unfortunately, we have been reminded how 
dangerous that job can be.
    I thanked Petty Officer Michael Sandwith, who serves in the Bering Seas on the Coast Guard 
cutter Midgett--and was recently forced to give chase to a vessel 
illegally fishing in our waters in the middle of a snowstorm with gale 
force winds and 24-foot swells.
    There are another 1.4 million stories like this: Americans in 
uniform with compelling missions, serving in places and doing jobs our 
fellow citizens don't hear much about.
    Behind the desk in the Oval Office, I have a now-famous rack of 
coins from the military units, commanders, and senior enlisted personnel 
I have visited these past 8 years. There are almost 500 of them, not 
counting the duplicates. Whenever I look at them, I remember the faces 
of the service members I've met, men and women of every race, creed, 
religion, who trace their ancestry to every region on Earth, yet are 
still bound together by the common mission of defending freedom and the 
common faith in the American creed, E pluribus unum--out of many, one. 
It is not only inscribed on our coins; it is inscribed in the hearts of 
America's service men and women, and it is the coin of America's moral 
authority in the world.
    I can tell you, after 8 years of traveling the world and dealing 
with the world's problems at the dawn of a new millennium, people 
elsewhere marvel at it. Our ability to live and work together in the 
military forces in spite of all those differences is by itself a 
powerful force for peace and reconciliation throughout the world. You 
are America's finest, and America must always be prepared to give you 
what you need to do your job. We can never pay you enough, but we can 
always pay you more.
    I am proud that a year ago we put in place the biggest increase in 
military pay and retirement in a generation, proud that we reversed a 
decade of decline in defense budgets, and now can point to 4 straight 
years of growing investment in our future security. No one should think 
for a moment that investing in the strength of our military is less 
important in times of peace. The strength of our military is a major 
reason for our peace. We live in peace in no small measure because your 
courage and strength makes peace a wiser choice than war for other 
adversaries.
    History will record triumphs in battle, as General Shelton said. But 
no one can ever write a full account of the wars that were never fought, 
the losses that were never suffered, the tears that were never shed 
because the men and women of the United States military risked their 
lives for peace. None of us should ever forget that.
    Last year I visited a refugee camp in Macedonia full of Kosovar 
Albanians who had been driven from their homeland. As I walked through 
the camp, young children picked up a chant, ``U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.,'' 
kids everywhere I turned, chanting ``U.S.A.,'' children who did not 
speak English but knew enough, with their small voices, to thank America 
for giving them the chance to reclaim their land and their dreams.
    I had the same response when I saw elderly people in Normandy in 
1994 on the 50th anniversary of D-day. There, American veterans were 
approached by French citizens who told them that no matter how young 
they were when it happened or how old they might be then, they could 
never forget what America did for them.
    Years from now, I hope some of our young veterans who served in the 
Balkans will have a chance to go back and see in person the fruits of 
their service. Years from now, I hope some of our veterans who served in 
Korea during this period of historic change, or in the Gulf when nations 
there were under such stress, will have a chance to return and find 
grateful people. I hope some of our veterans who served in Africa or 
Asia or Latin America or eastern Europe will be able to return to where 
they helped to keep the peace, to relieve suffering, to set an example 
for a fledgling democracy.
    If they do, I think they will find people who will still be wise and 
kind enough to say, ``God bless you. You gave us a future.''
    And I hope that your Nation understands whatever you have done to 
the rest of the world, you have done that tenfold for America. For by 
helping to advance the cause of peace and freedom around the world, you 
have made freedom more secure here at home. May it always be so.

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    I thank you for the honor of doing my part these last 8 years. God 
bless you, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 5 p.m. in Conmy Hall at Fort Myer. In his 
remarks, he referred to Janet Cohen, wife of Secretary of Defense 
William Cohen, and Carolyn Shelton, wife of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff Gen. Henry H. Shelton, USA.