[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 29 (Monday, July 21, 1997)]
[Pages 1063-1067]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Excerpts From an Exchange With Reporters Aboard Air Force One

July 11, 1997

Visit to Romania

[The President's remarks are joined in progress.]

    The President. ----but also, what if anything can be learned.
    Q. When you looked down on that crowd, is it the same feeling you 
had in Ireland? Was it the same feeling you had in Ireland? Is it 
different?

[[Page 1064]]

    The President. No, different, but wonderful. In Ireland it was--you 
know, my feeling there was about what was then a very much alive peace 
process, involving the people from whence I came, and all the hope of 
peace between two warring factions. You know, what I saw today was 
different, which is, this was the country which in the end of the 
Communist era was the most depressed. I mean, they never went through 
anything like Stalin's purges where he killed millions, but at the end 
of the Communist era, they were the most depressed. And to see the 
passion they have for their freedom and the way they honor the people 
who stood up for it in that square and the feeling they have about 
America, even though they know quite well that it was our judgment that 
they shouldn't come into the first tranche of NATO, I mean, it was 
overwhelming.
    And you know, these people, too--keep in mind, it's not like Poland, 
where Poland was--and I'm not denigrating--but Poland is now the success 
story of the former Communist countries. And 3 years ago, we didn't do a 
public event in Poland; I don't know how many people would have been 
there. I can't say. But the point is, Romania is now where Poland was 3 
years ago, maybe even longer, economically. They're still getting--what 
I said in my speech today--they're still going through the painful 
transition, the growing pains of going through a market economy where 
their economy is not growing. And they still came out to say, you know--
that was an enormous expression of national conviction and self-
confidence. I mean, they were confident. You know, those people, you 
don't--100,000 people don't show up and stand in the sun unless they 
believe in what they're doing, unless they believe in themselves and 
their future and they believe they can keep going and they can weather 
this storm.
    You know, it was an extraordinary thing to see people who are having 
those kinds of economic difficulties believing they can come out of 
them, having no doubt that they can be full partners in the Western 
alliance, showing--they're also--I think Romania deserves a lot of 
credit. I mean, it is a Balkan country, and they just basically made a 
deal with the Hungarians and put them in the government to solve their 
border disputes, their problems with Ukraine and Hungary, which required 
enormous self-restraint, you know. Because a lot of what is now in 
Moldova--Moldavia--and Ukraine was once a part of Romania. This is a 
country that has really, in a matter of months, just blossomed and is 
thinking about itself in terms of the future in ways that, of course, 
you know, I believe everybody said--so I'm thrilled.
    Q. That's policy. But on a personal level, do you ever get used to 
100,000 people hearing you?
    The President. No. I mean, personally, what I thought there--that 
this was--the three biggest crowds I believe I've had since I've been 
President, I believe--we were just talking about it--were this one, 
Dublin, and Berlin. There were probably 100,000 people when I was the 
first President to speak on the east side of the Brandenburg Gate. Of 
course, in Dublin and here, I'm much more involved in the events. There, 
I was going to ratify what others had done, in effect, what the Germans 
and others had done. But in each case, to me--on a personal basis, I 
thought, this is not me, this is the United States. This is what people 
think of America, and this is a tribute to what we have stood for, what 
we have worked for. And the other thing I thought was, this is an 
enormous responsibility. No other country could draw this sort of 
response at this moment in time.

[At this point, a portion of the exchange was omitted from the 
transcript.]

Mars Pathfinder Mission

    The President. I just had to keep watching. No, right after the 
landing and they brought me the first pictures, color pictures of the 
vehicle there, still in sort of its thing, it was just exhilarating. And 
now, you know, everywhere I am I turn on--and last night I was dying to 
go to sleep, and there was this Polish language--well, I mean, the 
Polish was sort of dubbed over the English and all the pictures and I 
couldn't hear the English--I couldn't turn it off. I could not turn it 
off. I just had to keep watching it.
    Q. It's making more headlines than the trip, sir.
    The President. It's just thrilling, isn't it?

[[Page 1065]]

    Q. But it did make history in press relations. It's the first time a 
President of the United States has been asked, ``What do you hear from 
Mars?'' and actually answered the question. [Laughter]
    The President. I know it.
    Q. Well, John Glenn wants to go.
    The President. Yes, I think--I think it would be a great thing. And 
I do think the argument that he could be helpful in analyzing not only 
the effects of space travel on a normal person but also what, if 
anything, could be learned about weightlessness and that sustained 
experience that might help us back home to deal with the increasing 
health challenges of our aging population--I think all that's really 
important.
    Q. It could be ironic because it was President Kennedy's order----

[A portion of the exchange was omitted from the transcript.]

Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada

    Q. [Inaudible]--Mr. Chretien. [Laughter]
    The President. Yes. You know, look, first of all, he is a superior 
human being; he is a very fine man. And he's a great leader, and he has 
been a fabulous ally of ours in Bosnia, in Haiti where they're carrying 
most of the load now, in many different ways. And we have no more strong 
ally. You know, this is just not going to bother me. I'm just not going 
to let this be static on our radar screen. We can't afford to do it. 
There's too much between our two countries. That's the most important 
thing. And there's too much between us personally. You've got to blow 
something like that off.
    Q. Is it a basic rule of politics that you should always assume 
microphones are on?
    The President. Yes. But you know, you remember when that happened to 
President Reagan when he was doing the radio address?
    Q. ``We start bombing in 10 minutes''?
    The President. It's happened to me before. It happened to me in '92, 
do you remember?
    Q. Yes--Jesse Jackson.
    The President. I had a particularly embarrassing incident in '92. It 
happened to other people in the primary in '92 were with me. If you do 
this business long enough and you operate under enough pressure and you 
have enough short nights where you don't get enough sleep, you're going 
to say something to somebody you wish you hadn't said that will wind up 
being a public statement. If you do it long enough, it's going to happen 
to everybody. And it's just not a big deal to me. He's a terrific human 
being and a great leader, and they're our great ally.
    Q. But you are going to beat him on the golf course?
    The President. Yes, I will try to get even on the golf course. The 
last time--the last two times I've played with him, I didn't play very 
well, and I haven't beat him like I should. So I'm going to try to do 
better next time.

[A portion of the exchange was omitted from the transcript.]

Assassination Investigations

    Q. [Inaudible]--instruct them how we can--[inaudible]?
    The President. First of all, I'm very interested in this, but I 
literally know nothing about it. All I know is what you said to me in 
your question. So I need to get back and really study it because 
obviously I'm very interested in it, not only from a forensic point of 
view but just because the assassination of Martin Luther King was one of 
the most traumatic events of my youth. I remember it like it was 
yesterday--April 4, 1968.
    Q. Do you think Oswald killed Kennedy?
    The President. Yes.
    Q. You've read the report, and you believe it?
    The President. I'm satisfied that they did a pretty good job on 
that. They did a good job. I think they----
    Q. Why do you think Ruby killed Oswald? Why do you think Ruby then 
killed Oswald? Did they want to shut him up?
    The President. I don't know.

[A portion of the exchange was omitted from the transcript.]

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, can I ask--[inaudible]?
    The President. No, no--the statement we put out is the truth. There 
were sealed indictments; these guys were indicted. And they were within 
the SFOR mandate; that is, they

[[Page 1066]]

were in regular contact with SFOR soldiers. And so they almost--in the 
British sector they felt they had an obligation to try to apprehend them 
because they were in regular contact with them. And we agreed to help 
because of the need, because there were--you know, because there could 
be problems and we had to get them out and get them to The Hague as soon 
as possible.
    Q. Mr. President, I think we're trying to figure out is whether it's 
that circumstance or a conscious decision to change--[inaudible].
    The President. Well, if you look at the statement, I don't think 
that's so much--let me say, if you look at the statement made by the 
foreign ministers at Sintra and if you look at the statement that came 
out of the group of eight and the NATO meeting itself, the statement we 
issued, we basically believe that we have to make an effort to save the 
Dayton process.
    And there are lots of elements in the Dayton process. This one 
obviously is, at the moment, the most compelling, especially since 
unfortunately the man fired on the troops and therefore was killed. But 
if you go back over this, there are several elements to Dayton. There's 
what we now call SFOR and its predecessor. There's local police, train 
local police. There's municipal elections. There's setting up the shared 
institutions. There's the arms controls provisions. There's the 
infrastructure. And then there's the economic development. I think 
that's all--there are basically eight separate elements.
    And what we admitted to ourselves--and one of the most

interesting things at the group of eight was that because SFOR was keeping 
anything bad from happening, if you will, there was too much focus being 
given to what happens in June of '88 and too little focus being given to 
each of these other elements.

    So I think it would be a fair conclusion for you to draw that we 
made a commitment in each of these places--the Sintra meeting, the NATO 
meeting, the G-8--that every element should be given greater attention.
    We also got a new guy in there on the civilian side, Westendorp, and 
with a very aggressive American aide named Klein we think a lot of; he 
did a good job in Eastern Slavonia. And we have a very competent NATO 
Secretary General in Solana. And we're about--and a commander, George 
Joulwan, who's been great, is about to leave and be replaced by Wes 
Clark, who was our military man when Dayton was negotiated.
    Q. Are you going to talk--[inaudible]?
    The President. He's doing what he should be doing. He is----
    Q. [Inaudible]--General Joulwan?
    The President. Yes, I know. He wants to retire.
    Q. You can't talk him--did you try?
    The President. No, I don't discuss that.
    Q. I'm sorry. All right.
    The President. But he is fabulous.
    Press Secretary Mike McCurry. We've got to go.
    Q. But wait, he didn't tell us what he thinks of the Berger----
    Q. It is not a change in the mission. It is a determination to 
execute it more forcefully and more----
    The President. It would be fair for you to conclude that we have 
decided we should try to save Dayton, and to save Dayton, all the 
elements had to be implemented. And that it's too easy for everybody 
involved to lean on SFOR as a crutch. But it also would be wrong to 
conclude that there was a decision to basically totally reform the 
mission. This was clearly within the mission.
    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. That's right. Properly read, this was plainly within 
our mission.
    Q. Right.
    Q. Are they under indictments?
    The President. Yes. Yes, they are.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 8:35 p.m. aboard Air Force 
One en route to Copenhagen, Denmark. In his remarks, he referred to 
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects Milan Kovacevic, who was apprehended, 
and Simo Drljaca, who was killed after firing on peacekeeping forces; 
and Carlos Westendorp, High Representative, and Jacques Klein, Principal 
Deputy High Representative, for Implementation of the Peace Agreement on 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of this exchange. This item was not received in time for 
publication in the appropriate issue.

[[Page 1067]]