[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 41 (Monday, October 18, 1993)]
[Pages 2065-2066]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting a Report on Somalia

 October 13, 1993

To the Congress of the United States:

    In response to the request made by the House and Senate for certain 
information on our military operations in Somalia, I am pleased to 
forward the attached report.
    In transmitting this report, I want to reiterate the points that I 
made on October 6 and to the American people in remarks on October 7. We 
went to Somalia on a humanitarian mission. We saved approximately a 
million lives that were at risk of starvation brought on by civil war 
that had degenerated into anarchy. We acted after 350,000 already had 
died.
    Ours was a gesture of a great nation, carried out by thousands of 
American citizens, both military and civilian. We did not then, nor do 
we now plan to stay in that country. The United Nations agreed to assume 
our military mission and take on the additional political and 
rehabilitation activities required so that the famine and anarchy do not 
resume when the international presence departs.
    For our part, we agreed with the United Nations to participate 
militarily with a much smaller U.S. force for a period of time, to help 
the United Nations create a secure environment in which it could ensure 
the free flow of humanitarian relief. At the request of the United 
Nations and the United States, approximately 30 nations deployed over 
20,000 troops as we reduced our military presence.
    With the recent tragic casualties to American forces in Somalia, the 
American people want to know why we are there, what we are doing, why we 
cannot come home imme- 

[[Page 2066]]

diately, and when we will come home. Although the report answers those 
questions in detail, I want to repeat concisely my answers:
<bullet>    We went to Somalia because without us a million people would 
            have died. We, uniquely, were in a position to save them, 
            and other nations were ready to share the burden after our 
            initial action.
<bullet>    What the United States is doing there is providing, for a 
            limited period of time, logistics support and security so 
            that the humanitarian and political efforts of the United 
            Nations, relief organizations, and others can have a 
            reasonable chance of success. The United Nations, in turn, 
            has a longer term political, security, and relief mission 
            designed to minimize the likelihood that famine and anarchy 
            will return when the United Nations leaves. The U.S. 
            military mission is not now nor was it ever one of ``nation 
            building.''
<bullet>    We cannot leave immediately because the United Nations has 
            not had an adequate chance to replace us, nor have the 
            Somalis had a reasonable opportunity to end their strife. We 
            want other nations to assume more of the burden of 
            international peace. To have them do so, they must think 
            that they can rely on our commitments when we make them. 
            Moreover, having been brutally attacked, were American 
            forces to leave now we would send a message to terrorists 
            and other potential adversaries around the world that they 
            can change our policies by killing our people. It would be 
            open season on Americans.
<bullet>    We will, however, leave no later than March 31, 1994, except 
            for a few hundred support troops. That amount of time will 
            permit the Somali people to make progress toward political 
            reconciliation and allow the United States to fulfill our 
            obligations properly, including the return of any Americans 
            being detained. We went there for the right reasons and we 
            will finish the job in the right way.
    While U.S. forces are there, they will be fully protected with 
appropriate American military capability.
    Any Americans detained will be the subject of the most complete and 
thorough efforts of which this Government is capable, with the 
unrelenting goal of returning them home and returning them to health.
    I want to thank all those who have expressed their support for this 
approach during the last week. At difficult times such as these, when we 
face international challenges, bipartisan unity among our two branches 
of government is vital.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
October 13, 1993.