[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 12 (Monday, March 29, 1999)]
[Pages 516-519]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Address to the Nation on Airstrikes Against Serbian Targets in the 
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

March 24, 1999

    My fellow Americans, today our Armed Forces joined our NATO allies 
in airstrikes against Serbian forces responsible for the brutality in 
Kosovo. We have acted with resolve for several reasons.
    We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a 
mounting military offensive. We act to prevent a wider war, to diffuse a 
powder keg at the heart of Europe that has exploded twice before in this 
century with catastrophic results. And we act to stand united with our 
allies for peace. By acting now, we are upholding our values, protecting 
our interests, and advancing the cause of peace.
    Tonight I want to speak to you about the tragedy in Kosovo and why 
it matters to America that we work with our allies to end it. First, let 
me explain what it is we are responding to. Kosovo is a province of 
Serbia, in the middle of southeastern Europe, about 160 miles east of 
Italy. That's less than the distance between Washington and New York and 
only about 70 miles north of Greece. Its people are mostly ethnic 
Albanian and mostly Muslim.
    In 1989 Serbia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic, the same leader who 
started the wars in Bosnia and Croatia and moved against Slovenia in the 
last decade, stripped Kosovo of the constitutional autonomy its people 
enjoyed, thus denying them their right to speak their language, run 
their schools, shape their daily lives. For years, Kosovars struggled 
peacefully to get their rights back. When President Milosevic sent his 
troops and police to crush them, the struggle grew violent.
    Last fall our diplomacy, backed by the threat of force from our NATO 
alliance, stopped the fighting for a while and rescued tens of thousands 
of people from freezing and starvation in the hills where they had fled 
to save their lives. And last month, with our allies and Russia, we 
proposed a peace agreement to end the fighting for good. The Kosovar 
leaders signed that agreement last week. Even though it does not give 
them all they want, even though their people were still being savaged, 
they saw that a just peace is better than a long and unwinnable war.
    The Serbian leaders, on the other hand, refused even to discuss key 
elements of the peace agreement. As the Kosovars were saying yes to 
peace, Serbia stationed 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo in 
preparation for a major offensive--and in clear violation of the 
commitments they had made.
    Now they've started moving from village to village, shelling 
civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken 
from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt, and sprayed with bullets; 
Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, 
lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not war in the traditional 
sense. It is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely

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defenseless people whose leaders already have agreed to peace.
    Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important to 
America's national interest. Take a look at this map. Kosovo is a small 
place, but it sits on a major fault line between Europe, Asia, and the 
Middle East, at the meeting place of Islam and both the Western and 
Orthodox branches of Christianity. To the south are our allies, Greece 
and Turkey; to the north, our new democratic allies in central Europe. 
And all around Kosovo there are other small countries struggling with 
their own economic and political challenges, countries that could be 
overwhelmed by a large, new wave of refugees from Kosovo. All the 
ingredients for a major war are there: ancient grievances, struggling 
democracies, and in the center of it all a dictator in Serbia who has 
done nothing since the cold war ended but start new wars and pour 
gasoline on the flames of ethnic and religious division.
    Sarajevo, the capital of neighboring Bosnia, is where World War I 
began. World War II and the Holocaust engulfed this region. In both 
wars, Europe was slow to recognize the dangers, and the United States 
waited even longer to enter the conflicts. Just imagine if leaders back 
then had acted wisely and early enough, how many lives could have been 
saved, how many Americans would not have had to die.
    We learned some of the same lessons in Bosnia just a few years ago. 
The world did not act early enough to stop that war, either. And let's 
not forget what happened: innocent people herded into concentration 
camps, children gunned down by snipers on their way to school, soccer 
fields and parks turned into cemeteries, a quarter of a million people 
killed, not because of anything they have done but because of who they 
were. Two million Bosnians became refugees. This was genocide in the 
heart of Europe, not in 1945 but in 1995; not in some grainy newsreel 
from our parents' and grandparents' time but in our own time, testing 
our humanity and our resolve.
    At the time, many people believed nothing could be done to end the 
bloodshed in Bosnia. They said, ``Well, that's just the way those people 
in the Balkans are.'' But when we and our allies joined with courageous 
Bosnians to stand up to the aggressors, we helped to end the war. We 
learned that in the Balkans, inaction in the face of brutality simply 
invites more brutality, but firmness can stop armies and save lives. We 
must apply that lesson in Kosovo before what happened in Bosnia happens 
there, too.
    Over the last few months we have done everything we possibly could 
to solve this problem peacefully. Secretary Albright has worked 
tirelessly for a negotiated agreement. Mr. Milosevic has refused.
    On Sunday I sent Ambassador Dick Holbrooke to Serbia to make clear 
to him again, on behalf of the United States and our NATO allies, that 
he must honor his own commitments and stop his repression, or face 
military action. Again, he refused.
    Today we and our 18 NATO allies agreed to do what we said we would 
do, what we must do to restore the peace. Our mission is clear: to 
demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's purpose so that the Serbian 
leaders understand the imperative of reversing course; to deter an even 
bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo and, if 
necessary, to seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm 
the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make 
peace, we will limit his ability to make war.
    Now, I want to be clear with you, there are risks in this military 
action, risks to our pilots and the people on the ground. Serbia's air 
defenses are strong. It could decide to intensify its assault on Kosovo 
or to seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere. If it does, we will 
deliver a forceful response.
    Hopefully, Mr. Milosevic will realize his present course is self-
destructive and unsustainable. If he decides to accept the peace 
agreement and demilitarize Kosovo, NATO has agreed to help to implement 
it with a peacekeeping force. If NATO is invited to do so, our troops 
should take part in that mission to keep the peace. But I do not intend 
to put our troops in Kosovo to fight a war.
    Do our interests in Kosovo justify the dangers to our Armed Forces? 
I've thought long and hard about that question. I am convinced that the 
dangers of acting are far outweighed

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by the dangers of not acting--dangers to defenseless people and to our 
national interests. If we and our allies were to allow this war to 
continue with no response, President Milosevic would read our hesitation 
as a license to kill. There would be many more massacres, tens of 
thousands more refugees, more victims crying out for revenge.
    Right now our firmness is the only hope the people of Kosovo have to 
be able to live in their own country without having to fear for their 
own lives. Remember: We asked them to accept peace, and they did. We 
asked them to promise to lay down their arms, and they agreed. We 
pledged that we, the United States and the other 18 nations of NATO, 
would stick by them if they did the right thing. We cannot let them down 
now.
    Imagine what would happen if we and our allies instead decided just 
to look the other way, as these people were massacred on NATO's 
doorstep. That would discredit NATO, the cornerstone on which our 
security has rested for 50 years now.
    We must also remember that this is a conflict with no natural 
national boundaries. Let me ask you to look again at a map. The red dots 
are towns the Serbs have attacked. The arrows show the movement of 
refugees north, east, and south. Already, this movement is threatening 
the young democracy in Macedonia, which has its own Albanian minority 
and a Turkish minority. Already, Serbian forces have made forays into 
Albania from which Kosovars have drawn support. Albania has a Greek 
minority. Let a fire burn here in this area, and the flames will spread. 
Eventually, key U.S. allies could be drawn into a wider conflict, a war 
we would be forced to confront later, only at far greater risk and 
greater cost.
    I have a responsibility as President to deal with problems such as 
this before they do permanent harm to our national interests. America 
has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying to 
save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom, and stability in 
Europe. That is what we are doing in Kosovo.
    If we've learned anything from the century drawing to a close, it is 
that if America is going to be prosperous and secure, we need a Europe 
that is prosperous, secure, undivided, and free. We need a Europe that 
is coming together, not falling apart, a Europe that shares our values 
and shares the burdens of leadership. That is the foundation on which 
the security of our children will depend.
    That is why I have supported the political and economic unification 
of Europe. That is why we brought Poland, Hungary, and the Czech 
Republic into NATO, and redefined its missions, and reached out to 
Russia and Ukraine for new partnerships.
    Now, what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, secure, 
united, stable Europe?--the challenge of strengthening a partnership 
with a democratic Russia that, despite our disagreements, is a 
constructive partner in the work of building peace; the challenge of 
resolving the tension between Greece and Turkey and building bridges 
with the Islamic world; and finally, the challenge of ending instability 
in the Balkans so that these bitter ethnic problems in Europe are 
resolved by the force of argument, not the force of arms, so that future 
generations of Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic to fight 
another terrible war.
    It is this challenge that we and our allies are facing in Kosovo. 
That is why we have acted now--because we care about saving innocent 
lives; because we have an interest in avoiding an even crueler and 
costlier war; and because our children need and deserve a peaceful, 
stable, free Europe.
    Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of 
our Armed Forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our 
values and our children's future.
    May God bless them, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 8:01 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of 
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and U.S. 
Special Envoy Richard C. Holbrooke.

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