[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 28 (Monday, July 18, 1994)]
[Pages 1472-1474]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Departing United States Troops in Berlin

July 12, 1994

    Thank you, General Maddox, Chancellor and Mrs. Kohl, Mayor and Mrs. 
Diepgen, General Joulwan, General Yates, Ambassador Holbrooke, members 
of the Berlin Brigade.
    Let me first say a word of appreciation to those who have spoken 
before: to General Yates for his moving statement of commitment and a 
shared experience you have had here in protecting freedom and in your 
work since the end of the cold war in Iraq and Turkey and Macedonia and 
elsewhere; General Maddox for his leadership and continuing commitment 
to our presence in Europe; and especially to my friend Chancellor Kohl, 
for it is what has happened in the last few years since the Wall fell 
which has proved that your enduring sacrifice was worth it. We are 
marking the end of a half a century of sacrifice on freedom's frontier. 
But we are celebrating a new beginning. Chancellor Kohl, I thank you for 
being America's great friend and for proving in the inordinate 
sacrifices made by the German people and the German Government since the 
Wall came down that unification can be a reality, that Germany can be 
whole and one and a full partnership in leading the world to a better 
tomorrow. America is in your debt, sir.
    In 1945, at the dawn of the cold war, President Truman came here to 
Berlin. From atop the American headquarters he raised high the Stars and 
Stripes and stated then his hope that one day Berlin would be part of 
what he called a better world, a peaceful world,

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a world in which all the people will have an opportunity to enjoy the 
good things in life.
    Well, today Berlin is free; Berlin is united; Berlin has taken its 
rightful place in that better world. The symbolic walk that the First 
Lady and I and Chancellor and Mrs. Kohl took through the Brandenburg 
Gate and the symbolic ceremony held for the first time with an American 
President on the eastern side of that gate, gave full evidence to the 
success of those efforts.
    And now, with the cold war over, we gather to honor those Americans 
who helped to bring it to an end, who helped to unite Berlin, who helped 
to make it possible for us to walk through the Brandenburg Gate, the men 
and women of the Berlin Brigade. Few moments in the life of a nation are 
as proud as when we can thank our sons and daughters in uniform for a 
job well done. Today we share such a moment. We case your colors as you 
prepare to bid farewell to this place you have done so much to secure. 
And I say to all of you, the members of the Berlin Brigade, America 
salutes you; mission accomplished.
    From Checkpoint Charlie to Doughboy City to Tempelhof Airport and 
beyond, more than 100,000 American men and women have served in Berlin. 
More than anyone, they showed the patience it took to win the cold war. 
More than anyone, they knew the dangers of a world on edge. They would 
have been the first casualties in the world's final war, yet they never 
flinched.
    They were people like Colonel Gail Halvorsen, who dropped tiny 
parachutes carrying candy to the children of Berlin during the 1948 
airlift and Sid Shachnow, a Holocaust survivor, who became an American 
citizen after the Second World War. Here in Berlin, he became better 
known as Brigadier General Shachnow, the brigade commander; and Edward 
Demory, one of the heroes of Checkpoint Charlie who commanded a unit 
that for 16 tense hours looked straight into the guns of Soviet tanks in 
1961; people like a brave private named Hans Puhl, who stood sentry one 
day in 1964, when a young East Berliner dashed for freedom. East German 
guards fired, and the youth fell wounded. And that's when Private Puhl 
jumped the Wall and carried him to freedom.
    Few of them are here today, but some are. Many of them will not see 
their beloved Berlin again. But when their nation and the world called, 
all stood ready to take the first fall for freedom. I ask you now, all 
of us, to thank them with applause for their acts of courage over these 
decades. [Applause]
    Now we leave, but the friendship between Germany and America and the 
thousands and thousands of personal friendships between Germans and 
Americans live on. And our commitment to the good and brave people of 
Berlin and Germany lives on. Together, we are building on our vision of 
a Europe united, pursuing a common dream of democracy, free market, 
security based on peace, not conquest. We stand ready to defend the 
interests of freedom against new threats, and I am committed to keeping 
some 100,000 troops in Europe to make sure that commitment is good.
    Today our troops are strong. They have what they need to do the job; 
they deserve it and they must always have it. The lessons we have 
learned for 50 years tell us that we must never let the forces of 
tyranny rule again.
    In the long struggle to free Berlin, no one ever knew for sure when 
the day of liberty would come, not when Harry Truman raised the flag in 
1945 or when the first airlift planes landed in 1948 or when the hateful 
Wall went up in 1961. But in all those years, the defenders of Berlin 
never gave up. You stood your ground; you kept watch; you fortified an 
island of hope. Now we go forward to defend freedom and, strengthened by 
your devotion, we work for the day when we can say everywhere in the 
world what you made it possible for us to say here today in Berlin: 
Mission accomplished.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 5:08 p.m. at the Fourth of July Platz at 
McNair Barracks. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. David M. Maddox, 
commander in chief, U.S. Army in Europe; Gen. Ronald W. Yates, Air Force 
Materiel Command; and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Holbrooke.

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