[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 10 (Monday, March 11, 1996)]
[Pages 426-428]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Swearing-In Ceremony for Barry McCaffrey as Director of the 
Office of National Drug Control Policy

March 6, 1996

    Thank you, Justice Ginsburg. I want to say a special word of welcome 
to Mrs. Jill McCaffrey, and to all of General McCaffrey's family who are 
here, to Attorney General Reno and Secretary Shalala, and our FBI 
Director, Louis Freeh, to Senator Biden and Congressman Zeliff, and to 
all the distinguished members of the Government and the military who are 
here.
    I would like to begin with a simple and heartfelt thank you to 
General McCaffrey for accepting this call to lead our Nation's battle 
against drugs. Service to our country runs in his family. In fact, we 
have three generations of McCaffrey service in attendance here today, as 
you saw standing with me.
    The general's father, Bill McCaffrey, who is here with his wife, 
Mary, is a retired lieutenant general who saw combat in World War II, 
Korea, and Vietnam. Two of his three children are pursuing careers in 
the military. His son, who is also here, drove all night from Fort 
Bragg, which is a testimony to the fact, General, that the physical 
training is still adequate to the task. [Laughter] He is an Army captain 
stationed at Fort Polk in Louisiana. His daughter, Tara, is an Army 
National Guard nurse. His other daughter, Amy, is a graduate student at 
Central Washington College.
    The McCaffrey family is a shining example of what is right with 
America. We are fortunate to have their service and their presence here 
today.
    General McCaffrey has faced down many threats to America's security, 
from guerrilla warfare in the jungles of Vietnam to the unprecedented 
ground war in the sands of Desert Storm. Now he faces a more insidious 
but no less formidable enemy in illegal drugs.
    Drugs are as much a threat to our security as any outside enemy is 
today. They are a leading cause of crime and violence. They add 
literally billions of dollars to health care costs every year. There is 
a new CDC report that says that drugs are the cause of at least half--
one-half of all the new HIV infections in the United States. And drugs 
are imperiling our Nation's most precious resource, our children.
    As I said in the State of the Union, if we ever expect to reduce 
crime and violence in our country to the low level that would make it 
the exception rather than the rule, we have to reduce the drug problem. 
We know it is a difficult battle. We know that overall drug use and 
crime are down in every segment of our society except one, our young 
people. And that makes the battle more difficult and more important.
    The glamorization of drugs and violence is a big reason for this. 
That's why I worked so hard for the V-chip and for the television rating 
system. That's why we need to stop the glorification of drugs in our 
popular culture. And for those who say we should throw in the towel and 
just make drugs legal,\1\ I say, not on my watch. I don't believe in 
that. That would be a mistake.
    \1\ White House correction.
    Over the last two decades we have made significant progress in this 
effort. Just in 1979, more than 22 million Americans used illegal drugs; 
5 million used cocaine. Today less than 12 million Americans are regular 
drug users, and the number of cocaine users has dropped 30 percent in 
the past 3 years. But the problem is still too great, and I say again, 
it is perplexing and troubling as it affects our juvenile population. 
Drug use among people 18 to 34 is down. Casual drug use among people 
under 18 is up. That may be why the crime rate is down overall in our 
country, but random violence among people under 18--our children and our 
future--is still up.
    Tomorrow General McCaffrey and I will have the opportunity to 
address this, along with others in the administration, at our National 
Conference on Youth and Violence. And this is a good way to kick it off, 
with his service.
    In the last 3 years we have tried to take many concrete steps to 
protect our children and their future. We're working to get hard-core 
drug users off the street, to make sure they can't commit crimes, and to 
get them into treatment. We're bringing drug prevention to our schools 
by teaching our children

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that drugs are wrong, illegal, and dangerous. We've put more police on 
the street, and that is a major cause of the decline in the crime rate.
    Two months ago I signed a directive requiring drug testing of 
Federal arrestees. We are doing all we can to stop drugs at their 
source, before they get to our borders. Just yesterday our U.S. Customs 
officials began seizing all imports of the sedative Rohypnol, which has 
been associated of late with date rape.
    But General McCaffrey and all of us know that we have to do more. We 
have to do much more. There's no one more capable to lead this effort 
than Barry McCaffrey. He is America's most highly decorated combat 
veteran. He earned two Distinguished Service Cross Awards for 
extraordinary valor in Vietnam. He also earned two Silver Stars for 
heroism and three Purple Hearts. He served two tours in Vietnam, where 
he was severely wounded by enemy gunfire. He led the now famous left 
hook maneuver that crushed the Iraqi army in Desert Storm. And for the 
last 2 years he's been on the frontlines of our efforts to stop drugs at 
their source in his role as Commander in Chief of the United States 
Southern Command based in Panama.
    As part of our counternarcotics team, he displayed decisive 
leadership in strengthening the efforts in Latin America, including 
forming one of the most successful international coalitions against 
drugs that has ever existed in that region. In addition to his heroism 
on the battlefield, General McCaffrey has distinguished himself as a man 
of ideas, a brilliant man of ideas, especially the one that Justice 
Ginsburg thought so much of that she mentioned a few moments ago.
    He has always taken a comprehensive view towards problem solving, 
and he knows that our efforts in the struggle against drugs will require 
a combination of treatment, prevention, education, enforcement, and 
interdiction. Teamwork and coalition building are not just words to him; 
he has done it. Teamwork and coalition building literally saved his life 
and the lives of his soldiers. There is no doubt that he has the talent, 
the courage, and the vision to take up this fight.
    But he cannot do it alone. As I said in the State of the Union, he's 
going to need a larger force than he has ever commanded before, indeed, 
a larger force than he and his colleagues who have come from the 
Pentagon to join him today have ever commanded before. He's going to 
need every American doing his or her part if we are going to succeed. It 
means that we have to begin with parents talking firmly and clearly with 
their children, with our communities, our houses of worship, our 
schools, our employers, our national and community groups. The fight 
against drugs must in the end be a citizens campaign because every 
citizen has a direct stake in the outcome.
    General, I want you to have the tools you need. For the last 3 years 
I have challenged Congress to do its part. In each of those years 
Congress has appropriated less than I asked for counternarcotics efforts 
in the Department of Defense and other agencies. America must never send 
its troops into battle without adequate resources to get the job done.
    That's why, today, I am directing General McCaffrey to take the 
first step to make sure that we are adequately armed to fight this 
battle. As your first act of duty I direct you to prepare a plan to 
amend the 1996 fiscal year budget through reallocating $250 million from 
the Department of Defense budget so that it can be added to our 
counternarcotics efforts. I will submit the plan to Congress this month. 
I'm also directing you to examine the fiscal year '97 budget to 
determine if a similar reallocation is needed.
    We have to get after this. We have to get General McCaffrey off to a 
good start. I believe that he will get our country off to a good start. 
Our national security, the well-being of our children are at stake. We 
can create a safer, more drug-free society. We can do this if we work 
together.
    As I have said many times in different contexts, when we are divided 
as a country, we defeat ourselves, but when America is united, we never 
lose. I believe Barry McCaffrey will help to unite America, and I 
believe he will help us to win this great and enduring struggle for our 
character, our soul, and the future of our children.
    Thank you again, General McCaffrey, for laying down your four stars 
to reach for the stars. We appreciate you. Your country is

[[Page 428]]

grateful. And I ask you now to come and say what's on your mind.

Note: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House.