    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 13 (Monday, April 5, 1999)]
    [Pages 533-535]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks on the Unveiling of a Portrait of Former Secretary of State
    Warren M. Christopher

    March 30, 1999

        Thank you very much, Secretary Albright, Chris, Marie, other members
    of the Cabinet who are here, Secretary Rubin, Secretary Shalala. We
    thank very much Tunky Riley and Hattie Babbitt for being here. And we're
    glad that Tom and Oya are here and past and present officials of the
    State Department, other distinguished guests.
        I would like to begin by saying that it is ironic, but perhaps
    appropriate, that we are unveiling the portrait of this truly wonderful,
    distinguished American who did so much to bring peace to Bosnia at a
    time when we are engaged in a struggle for peace in Kosovo. I hope
    you'll just let me say a word about that.
        The NATO military operation is continuing today against an expanded
    range of targets, including Serbian forces on the ground in Kosovo. The
    allies are united in our outrage over President Milosevic's atrocities
    against innocent people. We are determined to stay with our policy. As
    President Chirac said yesterday, what is happening today must strengthen
    our resolution.
        Countries from throughout the Balkans, from Greece to Turkey to
    Romania to Bulgaria, are helping us to meet the mounting humanitarian
    crisis. We are all dealing today with the same horrible pattern of
    conduct we saw in Bosnia. We saw that conduct resume in 1998 in Kosovo,
    when a quarter of a million innocent people were driven from their
    homes. We saw it escalate in January and February of this year, as
    Serbian forces, in violation of the agreement the President had made
    last October, moved from village to village and atrocity to atrocity
    while their leaders pretended to negotiate for peace in France.
        Now it is clear that as the Kosovar leaders were saying yes to
    peace, Mr. Milosevic was planning a new campaign of expulsions and
    executions in Kosovo. He started carrying out that plan as the talks
    ended, increasing our sense of urgency that the airstrikes NATO had
    threatened for some time must begin.
        Now, lamentably, we have credible reports that his troops are
    singling out for murder the moderate Kosovar leaders who supported a
    peaceful solution. Refugees are streaming out, clearly shaken by what
    they have seen. Altogether, since the conflict started last year, more
    than half a million people have been forced from their homes.
        If there was ever any doubt about what is at stake in Kosovo, Mr.
    Milosevic is certainly erasing it by his actions. They are the
    culmination of more than a decade of using ethnic and religious hatred
    as a justification for uprooting and murdering completely innocent,
    peaceful civilians to pave Mr. Milosevic's path to absolute power.
        The NATO air campaign is designed to raise the price of that policy.
    Today, he faces the mounting cost of his continued aggression. For a
    sustained period, he will see that his military will be seriously
    diminished, key military infrastructure destroyed, the prospect of
    international support for Serbia's claim to Kosovo increasingly
    jeopardized.
        We must remain steady and determined, with the will to see this
    through.
        I can't think of anyone whose life and career and personality those
    words--``steady, determined, the will to see this through''--I can't
    think of anyone those words apply better to than Warren Christopher. No
    one worked harder than he did to bring an end to the bloody war in
    Bosnia. No one worked harder than he did to galvanize the unity in our
    NATO alliance that has allowed us to act with resolve today and gave us
    the vision to take on new members and new missions in the aftermath of
    the cold war.
        It took time to forge a just peace in Bosnia, because Chris and his
    team were persistent and prevailed. We must be as persistent today as we
    were then in pursuit of peace.
        He was our first post-cold-war Secretary of State, our first chief
    diplomat in over 50 years who faced, as Madeleine recently said, the
    challenge of defining our foreign policy in a world without a single,
    overriding threat to our security. But he saw that, as did I, as a great
    opportunity. He was determined

    [[Page 534]]

    to make sure that we maintained our leadership in the world, consistent
    with our values, our interests, and our tradition, and that we remained
    alive to the new possibilities for peace and prosperity and security
    that this new world brings.
        From the first days of 1993, he was a whirlwind of activity. I like
    to say--I used to kid him that he really weighed 250 pounds when he
    became Secretary of State, and he just worked it off. But that's not
    true. He got up every morning and went running to wake up and get his
    exercise, and he never stopped running.
        He advanced the peace process in the Middle East, from the
    unforgettable signing on the South Lawn in 1993 to the peace between
    Israel and Jordan in the Wadi Araba, to the countless days and nights of
    hard work to keep the process alive through hope and despair after the
    death of our friend Prime Minister Rabin.
        He led our efforts to secure the agreed framework with North Korea
    to achieve a secure peace on the Korean Peninsula, to make the Dayton
    agreement first a reality. He shepherded our alliances in Europe and
    Asia into a new historical era.
        He tried to bring new unity to our diplomacy, between our
    diplomatic, our military, and our economic strategies, aggressively
    supporting NAFTA and GATT. He helped us to reach out to the rest of the
    world in new and innovative ways through the Asian Pacific Economic
    Leaders meeting, the Summit of the Americas, the first White House
    Conference on Africa.
        He understood how important it was for us to maintain and intensify
    our partnership with Russia, and we did a lot of good things together in
    those 4 years. More than any other previous Secretary of State, he
    understood that protecting the environment would become an increasingly
    important area of international security, requiring greater
    international cooperation. He put the environment where it belongs in
    the 21st century--in the mainstream of our diplomacy.
        Like his successor, Chris also fought tenaciously for the resources
    the State Department needs to do the job you do so well.
        Now, Chris had about the lowest ratio of ego to accomplishment of
    any public servant I've ever worked with. And we can all say these noble
    things about him. It's true. He never thought you had to hit below the
    belt to get above the fold in the morning newspaper. He was always
    willing to go the extra mile for peace, and is now the most traveled
    Secretary of State in our history--though Madeleine seems determined to
    overtake him. [Laughter]
        All that is true. But just remember one thing: People ask me all the
    time, ``How did you ever decide to make Warren Christopher your first
    Secretary of State?'' And I said, ``You know, I don't know; it just sort
    of came to me in the transition process''--which Warren Christopher ran.
    [Laughter] It is a great mistake to underestimate this man. [Laughter]
        Near the end of his book, ``In the Stream of History,'' Chris
    reveals that he is not fond of emotional goodbyes. I have tried with
    some difficulty to honor his preference. But I'd like to just mention a
    couple of things from the book because they particularly touched me. He
    confesses his admiration in the book for George Marshall and Dean
    Acheson, two World War II generation public servants who defeated
    formidable foes but had the foresight to commit America to continued
    leadership in a new world. In his farewell address to the State
    Department, he summoned their memory. I suspect that his admiration
    stems from the fact that they were Americans who put the needs of their
    country above their own, who were modest when they could be but forceful
    when they had to be, who possessed the stamina and the steel to
    accomplish things that were truly extraordinary. He has all those
    qualities.
        And I can tell you, every day I remain grateful that somehow,
    someway, a few years ago our paths crossed. We became friends and
    allies. I don't think I've ever known anyone with quite the degree of
    selfless devotion to public service and aggressive pursuit of the
    Nation's interest put into one compact, brilliant person that I have
    seen in Warren Christopher.
        I am honored by his service and by his friendship. And I thank you
    all for being here today to unveil his portrait.
        Thank you very much.

    [[Page 535]]

    Note: The President spoke at 1:47 p.m. in the Benjamin Franklin Room at
    the State Department. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary
    Christopher's wife, Marie, his son, Tom, and daughter-in-law, Oya;
    Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley's wife, Ann (Tunky); President
    Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and
    Montenegro); and President Jacques Chirac of France. The transcript made
    available by the Office of the Press Secretary also included the remarks
    of former Secretary Christopher.