[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.