[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 1995)]
[Pages 1000-1002]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies

June 8, 1995

    One of these days we're going to have an event where I have to be 
introduced by the First Lady when we've had one of those other days. 
[Laughter] Lord only knows what will happen--[laughter]--but it will be 
another adventure.
    I am delighted to see all of you here. I'm glad to be here with our 
friend Lee Annenberg and with Ann Gund and with all of you who support 
this important work.
    Let me say that this has been an interesting day at the White House. 
We swore in 263 police officers earlier today. We've had all kinds of 
people in here from all over America. But mostly we have been 
celebrating the liberation of that fine young Air Force Captain from 
Bosnia.
    Sometimes I read even in the American press from time to time that 
we don't seem to be doing anything in Bosnia, and we don't seem to have 
exerted ourselves. You should know that we have over 1,000 American 
troops on the border of Bosnia in the Former Yugoslav Republic of 
Macedonia to make sure that conflict doesn't spread. We have 200 
Americans in the hospital unit in Croatia. And we have flown the longest 
humanitarian airlift and the largest one in history, larger than the 
Berlin airlift, to guarantee food and medicine to people in the besieged 
areas of Bosnia. And perhaps most importantly of all, people like that 
fine young Captain have been flying for a couple of years now to keep 
the war out of the air. And for all of our frustrations and feelings of 
anxiety and anger, in 1992 there were about 130,000 civilians killed, a 
staggering number, in that troubled land. Last year there were under 
3,000.
    So I ask you to remember as we celebrate this liberation that a lot 
of people stick their neck out everyday and the results have been

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important. If you look at Northern Ireland or South Africa or the Middle 
East, the lesson of this time is that it's very difficult to enforce 
peace on people that want to keep fighting with one another, but what 
you try to do is to keep it within some bounds of humanity, keep working 
on diplomacy until they spend their destructive energies and start 
trying to build again.
    And once in a while the risk becomes apparent, as it was in the case 
of this brave pilot. And for 6 days he held out against a lot of 
attempts to find him and to shoot him and capture him. And he 
represented the best in our country. He told me today when we visited on 
the phone--I talked to his parents last night at 1:30 a.m., and they 
asked me if I was going to call him. I said, ``No, you call him. I'm 
going to bed. I just wanted--[laughter]--I wanted you to know he was 
home safe.''
    But he told me today that he was on the ground between three and 
five minutes before armed people made it to his parachute. He had three 
to five minutes to find a place to hide and begin this incredible 
odyssey that I'm sure some day will be a very great movie that all of us 
will think is suitable for everyone to see. [Laughter]
    Let me say on behalf of all of our administration, and especially 
the people who work in America's diplomatic efforts, we are profoundly 
grateful for what you do. By putting American art in our embassies 
around the world, you are part of our public diplomacy, you expose an 
important part of the essence of America to people all around the world. 
And it couldn't happen without you.
    I also want to thank you because you have put, I think now, over 
2,200 works of American art in more than 170 countries, raised over $7 
million to fund projects at Embassy residencies in Beijing and Cairo and 
Rome and London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Warsaw. And I've been to a lot of 
those places, so I am one of the chief beneficiaries of your efforts. 
And I thank you for that.
    You couldn't do it alone. The State Department couldn't do it alone. 
This represents one of those remarkable partnerships between the public 
and the private sector in America that almost nobody knows about, but 
everyone takes for granted when they benefit from it.
    We're having such a raging debate in this country today about 
whether public is bad and private is good, whether all of our efforts 
should be directed at correcting personal conduct or at changing 
economic or political direction. I think these debates make for very 
interesting print and maybe news coverage at night, but they don't 
conform to the real-world experience of most people.
    Most of us, I think, all of our lives, have felt that when people 
get together in some sort of constructive partnership, that's what works 
best. And I think one of the most frustrating things to me about going 
to work every day, in this otherwise exhilarating environment, is 
knowing that what comes across to the American people are these 
polarized choices and conflicts and rhetorical battles which don't 
reflect the way any sensible person would run his or her family or 
business or charitable organization or hospital or church or you name 
it.
    You have done what I think is best about America. You have taken the 
world as you find it, worked together in a real spirit of partnership, 
recognized that there is a personal responsibility and opportunity and 
also a public responsibility in this area. I wish we had more of it, and 
I'm glad we've got you.
    Thank you very much.
    I have a lot to be grateful to Lee Annenberg and her fine husband, 
Walter, for, but not so long ago we were here to announce that the 
Annenbergs had decided to donate a staggering sum for the purpose of 
trying to improve public education in this country. I think there is no 
more noble cause. And because of what they have done, all across America 
people are doing things differently, striving for global standards of 
excellence in grassroots community schools. And for that and for this 
and for so much else, the country owes a great debt of gratitude to Lee 
Annenberg, and I am very pleased to introduce her now.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 6:17 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Leonore Annenberg, chairperson, 
and Ann Gund, vice chairperson, Friends of Art and Preservation in 
Embassies.

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