[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 49 (Monday, December 11, 1995)]
[Pages 2113-2115]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany and 
an Exchange With Reporters in Baumholder

December 2, 1995

    The President. Good afternoon. I have just finished a very good set 
of briefings from our military commanders about the plans to deploy in 
Bosnia to enforce the peace agreement. And I have received a report from 
General Joulwan about the meeting of the North Atlantic Council which 
has, in essence, approved the military plan for implementing the peace 
agreement, which I signed off on just a few days ago in the Oval Office.
    So I feel very good about what I have seen, about the morale of our 
troops. As you saw, I shook hands with several hundred of them, and I 
then had lunch with a significant number of them. I think their morale 
is high. They are well aware that they have been very well-trained. They 
are very supportive of the rules of engagement which give them the tools 
they need to do their job.
    But I would say more than anything else, the men and women with whom 
I spoke today are committed to the humanitarian mission of saving the 
lives of the children and innocent civilians. And they understand that 
they are going there not in war but in peace, to facilitate a peace 
agreement, and that this is very different from having been involved in 
a conflict. And so we're working hard, and I feel good about where we 
are.
    I also had a wonderful extended visit with Chancellor Kohl on the 
way down here, and he shared a lot of his thoughts with me. And of 
course, Germany has been a great partner in this and in some ways has 
borne, perhaps, the heaviest financial burden of the Bosnian war because 
of the many hundreds of thousands of refugees which have been taken in 
and sustained by the German people.
    So I would like to ask Chancellor Kohl to make whatever comments he 
would like to make, and then we'll have questions.
    Chancellor Kohl. Mr. President, I would like to bid you once again a 
very warm welcome here to our country. This has been a very impressive 
day that we shared here today. And I must say that I'm gratified that 
I'm yet again able to say this here in Baumholder, to say once again 
what, for us here in Germany, the Alliance has meant these past four 
decades.
    The Alliance for us meant peace and freedom for our country. It 
meant that we were given the opportunity, together with our American 
friends, to overcome the division of our country and to win unity for 
Germany. And I don't think there's any other place where one is in a 
better position to say something like that than here. Because, Bill, I'm 
confident that when this message is being sent here from Baumholder to 
the United States, then hundreds of thousands, even millions of 
Americans will remember the days when they themselves as soldiers or 
relatives spent time here in Baumholder. And I would like to state 
clearly that we have not forgotten what our American friends have done 
for us.
    And it was a very impressive day for me, too, because it brought 
home to me the determination of the President of the United States and 
of the people of the United States to make, through their mission, 
possible that peace finally comes to Bosnia and that the agreement is 
being implemented.
    And I would like to say to the mothers and fathers who send their 
sons and their daughters out with this mission out to Bosnia, that they 
send out their sons and their daughters in order to assure peace and to 
safeguard peace. And that is the best possible mission for any army in 
the world.
    And I would like to use this opportunity here, Bill, to thank you, 
to thank the President of the United States for the determination to act 
that they have shown here. You are in a proud American tradition in so 
doing, a proud tradition that has always said that the United States 
should not look away but that they should show leadership and become 
active.
    Obviously, I would never dare to interfere in American domestic 
politics. But I would like to know as many Americans as possible that we 
hope for the broadest possible support of the people of the United 
States of America for the President and the Army in this important 
endeavor.
    We, ourselves, have made a decisive step in the right direction; 
4,000 German soldiers will go, will be sent to the region. And I

[[Page 2114]]

would like to wish all of the troops going into the region--American 
troops, British troops, French troops, German troops, from whatever 
nation they may be sent--I would like to wish them Godspeed and a safe 
return back to their families.
    And I must say that I came away very much impressed from the 
luncheon, where I had the opportunity to talk to family members as well, 
impressed by the calm and the steadfastness of the wives and the 
relatives--the wives obviously being afraid, which is very 
understandable under the circumstances, but showing a quiet resolve to 
support their husbands and seeing how important this mission is.
    Thank you.

Bosnia

    Q. How many Americans will be spending Christmas in Bosnia?
    The President. You'll have to ask General Joulwan that. I don't know 
that. We will--obviously, under the peace agreement, deployments have to 
begin shortly after the signing of the agreement. But it will take some 
considerable amount of time for a full buildup. So I would think there 
would be probably fewer than half of the total force could be there by 
Christmas, maybe even less than that. That's a question you should ask 
General Joulwan. Right now it's strictly a matter of military planning.
    Q. Mr. President, have you approved the execute order for the 
deployment of U.S. troops? And also, you have said many times that it's 
expected that it would be one year for the U.S. troops. Does that also 
pertain to other NATO troops? How long would they be there?
    The President. The timeframe is for the military mission, not 
specifically for the American troops. It is the military mission. 
Because of the specific functions delegated to the military, as opposed 
to the civilians--keep in mind, what the military is supposed to do is 
maintain the cease-fire, separate the forces, create the zone of 
separation, supervise the transfer of property and the redeployment of 
forces, and then maintain a secure environment so there can be free 
movement throughout the country, so the refugees can go home and the 
reconstruction can begin and the elections can be held. It is believed 
by all of our planners and agreed to by the people who signed the peace 
treaty that that should be done in about a year. And it's completely 
different from the civilian practices.
    The answer to your first question is, no, I have not, but I will as 
soon as it's presented to me. I have given a prior general approval to 
our military planners, as I announced to the Congress, to send a small 
force in to do the planning work in anticipation of the signing of the 
treaty and no adverse developments between now and the treaty signing on 
the 14th in Paris. But that is all I intend to do before Congress has a 
chance to speak its mind. I thought--I believe that I have no 
alternative. So I have not done it now, yet, but I will as soon as 
presented with the decision.
    Any German press have a question? No----
    Q. Mr. President, as Commander in Chief, how difficult is it for you 
to look into the faces of these young men and women who are about to go 
into a dangerous situation to carry out your orders?
    The President. Well, I wanted to come here to look into their faces 
and into the faces of their wives, their husbands, and their children 
because I think they are about to do a very noble and important thing 
for our country and for the world. And I wanted to come here and 
directly say to them. ``Here is why I want you to go, and here is what 
you will be doing and what you will not be doing. We have done 
everything we could to minimize the risks, but there still are some, and 
here is what we expect to do about that.''
    I wanted to give them those straight answers. I wanted to look at 
them--you know, I spent quite a long time there today and I talked to 
several hundred of them briefly today, and I frankly was very moved by 
the responses they gave. I think they understand it's not a risk-free 
mission, but I believe they understand its importance and the 
fundamentally honorable nature of it.
    Once again, the United States has no hidden or dark motives here. We 
simply want to restore peace and democracy and a decent life to those 
people.
    Thank you.

[[Page 2115]]

    Q. Mr. President, Chancellor Kohl expressed the hope that you would 
have the American people behind you. Do you think you do have the 
American people's support for it?
    The President. I think that the support is building in the United 
States, and I think that the support for the troops and their mission 
will be universal. It always has been, and I believe it will be now.

Note: The President spoke at 3:40 p.m. in the Rheinlander Building at 
the Baumholder Army Base. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.