[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 32 (Monday, August 16, 1999)]
[Pages 1594-1597]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at Fort 
Myer, Virginia

August 9, 1999

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary Cohen and Janet. Let me 
begin by thanking the Secretary for his remarks, his devotion, his 
remarkable leadership, and his willingness to serve in our 
administration--to prove that when it comes to the national security of 
the United States, we are beyond party, and all Americans.
    General Shelton, thank you for your leadership and for your remarks. 
And we are delighted to be joined today not only by your wonderful wife, 
Carolyn, but also by your mother. We're glad she came up to be with us.
    Thanks, Secretary Slater, Secretary West, Senator Thurmond, for 
being here. Senator Thurmond may be the only person here who served in 
the military before there was a Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was at D-day, 
and he's here 55 years later, and we're delighted to have him. In both 
places, he has served our country well. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, 
Senator.
    I thank the service secretaries, the members of the Joint Chiefs who 
are here, General Ralston and others, and the former members of the 
Joint Chiefs, and all the other officers who are here. One in particular 
I would like to mention, General Wes Clark, because of his extraordinary 
leadership in our most recent military victory in Kosovo. I thank him 
and all the men and women of our Armed Forces who have served there. 
[Applause] Thank you.

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    I especially want to welcome here the former Chairmen and their 
wives: Admiral and Mrs. Moorer, General and Mrs. Jones, General and Mrs. 
Vessey, Admiral and Mrs. Crowe, General and Mrs. Shalikashvili, and, of 
course, Alma Powell. We're glad to have them here.
    Fifty years ago--you've heard a lot about already today, but I think 
it is worth remembering what it was like to be the Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff 50 years ago. It was a new job. It was clearly 
overwhelmingly preoccupied with the onset of the cold war and the need 
to defend Europe. But soon after General Omar Bradley was summoned to 
assume the job, war broke out in Korea. So he had not only to defend 
Europe, but also to defend freedom in South Korea, and fulfill the job 
description to coordinate the services, and also to coordinate with the 
State Department and the White House.
    We have our White House Chief of Staff, Mr. Podesta, and the 
National Security Adviser, Mr. Berger, and others who are here. I think 
we can say with some conviction that sometimes the hardest military job 
of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is his coordination with the White 
House. And it has been so for 50 years. But General Bradley and then 13 
other remarkable leaders have found a way to do that, and at the same 
time, to provide wise and honest counsel at crucial moments to every 
President and Secretary of the Defense. And I would like to stop a 
moment and emphasize that.
    There will come a time in the service of every President--in my time 
it has come, unfortunately, on several occasions--when you have to have 
the honest advice of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And very often, 
it is the last thing in the world you want to hear, because he will 
either tell you that you really can't achieve the objective you want to 
achieve for the price you're willing to pay, or that you have to do 
something that you'd rather to go to the dentist without novocaine than 
do. And I can tell you that, without exception, every time a Chairman of 
the Joint Chiefs has had to do that to me, he has done it. He has served 
our country well; he has served the President well; he has served the 
military and the men and women in uniform well. This institution has 
worked because the people who are part of it did what they were required 
to do in times of crisis. And our country should be very grateful to all 
of them.
    Just think what has happened over the last 50 years. We look back on 
50 years of constant vigilance, of two hot wars and a long cold war, of 
military victories in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans, of difficulties 
like the Cuban missile crisis and many others too numerous to mention. 
But through it all, and though new threats emerged continuously, we see 
the march to freedom and we see the depth of America's security.
    We can look forward to the 21st century with genuine confidence, in 
no small measure because of the 14 leaders we honor today. So again, I 
say, along with the Secretary of Defense, to those who are here, to the 
surviving families of those who are not, and to those who could not be 
with us today, our Nation is grateful. You have served it well.
    I was very privileged to work with three Chairs--Colin Powell, John 
Shalikashvili, and Hugh Shelton; to work very closely with the previous 
Chairman, Bill Crowe, who has been my Ambassador to Great Britain and 
has done a lot of important work to alert us to the continuing dangers 
to our Embassies and their personnel from terrorists. I had the 
privilege of getting good counsel on the very difficult POW-MIA issue 
from General Vessey, and on our efforts to save innocent civilians from 
the dangers of landmines by General Jones. Of course, I still hear from 
General Powell on a regular basis about his work with America's Promise 
and our shared interest in it.
    The more I know the people who are involved in these endeavors, the 
more my esteem for them grows. I always have separation anxiety when 
someone important leaves. When Shali walked out the door and went all 
the way across the country, I thought Joan would never let him come 
back. But I've even found something for him to do from time to time that 
doesn't get him in too much trouble at home.
    These people are unique. They have these unique experiences that 
they blend with their abilities and their patriotism. And I think we 
should think just a moment about the position beyond the question of 
advice to the

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President. If you think about it, with the world changing as much as it 
is today, and with the United States occupying the rather unique 
position we occupy at this moment in history, there are few positions 
which require the occupant to think harder about the threats the Nation 
faces and will face. There are few which force a leader to weigh more 
soberly the costs of action--which in a world where people are 
comfortable, are very high--against the costs down the road of inaction. 
There are few which require a person to spend as much time thinking 
about how to avoid war as how to win one if it should become necessary.
    General Bradley said a long time ago that the way to win a nuclear 
war is to make sure it never starts. I would like to thank the former 
Chairs of the Joint Chiefs who have endorsed the ratification of the 
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end nuclear testing forever, proposed 
by President Eisenhower, championed by President Kennedy, signed now by 
the United States and over 150 other countries--41 of them have ratified 
it. Four of our former Chairs--General Jones, Admiral Crowe, General 
Powell, General Shalikashvili--have issued a statement endorsing the 
treaty, agreeing with the current Chair, General Shelton, that it is in 
America's interest.
    Why? Because we have already stopped testing; our leading experts 
say we can maintain a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent without 
further tests; and the only remaining question is, will we join or lose 
a verifiable treaty that can prevent other countries from testing 
nuclear weapons. If we don't ratify it, by its terms the treaty can't 
enter into force. And countries all around the world will feel more 
pressure to develop and test weapons in ever more destructive varieties 
and sizes, threatening the security of everyone on Earth.
    So today, once again, as we honor the Joint Chiefs, the individuals 
and the institution, I ask the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to 
hold hearings on the treaty this fall, and the full Senate to vote for 
ratification as soon as possible. This will strengthen national security 
not only of the United States but of people around the world. This will 
help the new Chairs of the Joint Chiefs in the future not only to 
prepare for war but to avoid it.
    Let me finally say that as we approach a new century, we can still 
be proud, indeed, never prouder, of our men and women in uniform. Thanks 
to their courage and skill in the most recent campaign in Kosovo, a 
brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing has been reversed; our alliance has 
been preserved and strengthened; there is new hope for a world where 
people are not murdered or uprooted because of their ethnic heritage or 
the way they choose to worship God.
    Operation Allied Force was a truly remarkable military campaign. 
Over 30,000 sorties flown; no combat casualties. Still we must not 
indulge the illusion of a risk-free war. In Kosovo, our pilots risked 
their lives every day. They took enemy fire, faced enemy aircraft, time 
and again put themselves in even greater danger just to avoid hitting 
civilians on the ground. And we know not every conflict will be like 
Kosovo; not every battle can be won from the air.
    We must remember, too, that the rigorous training we require of our 
men and women in uniform is in itself dangerous. We lost two helicopter 
pilots training in Kosovo. In every single year, we lose a good number 
of men and women in uniform just doing their duty.
    Our job from the top down is to reduce the risks of their service as 
much as we can and to send our service men and women into harm's way 
only when we're certain that the purpose is clear, the mission is 
achievable, and all peaceful options have been exhausted.
    When we do send them, we have to make sure they have the tools to do 
the job. We must always match their skill and courage with a high level 
of readiness. And we must always prepare today for tomorrow's threats. 
All those jobs, in the end, fall on the shoulders of the Chair of the 
Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    In his remarkable memoir of World War II, Omar Bradley wrote the 
following words. He said, ``No matter how high an officer's rank, it's 
important to scoff at the myth of the indispensable man. For we have 
always maintained that Arlington Cemetery is filled with indispensable 
men.''
    Now, that statement is a tribute to his decency and his humility. 
Nevertheless, for 50

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years now, the role of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been 
indispensable to the preservation of life on this planet from nuclear 
holocaust, to the security of the United States, and to the march of 
freedom across the world.
    Fourteen Americans of great ability and even more intense patriotism 
have occupied that office and made it indispensable. So, too all of 
those who are here, and their families, and those who are not here 
today, a grateful nation says, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10 a.m. at Summerall Field. In his remarks, 
he referred to Secretary Cohen's wife, Janet Langhart Cohen; General 
Shelton's mother, Sarah Laughlin Shelton; Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA, 
Supreme Allied Commander Europe; former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, USN (Ret.), and his wife, Carrie; Gen. 
David C. Jones, USA (Ret.), and his wife, Lois; Gen. John W. Vessey, 
Jr., USA (Ret.), and his wife, Avis; Adm. William J. Crowe, Jr., USN 
(Ret.), and his wife, Shirley; Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, USA (Ret.), 
and his wife, Joan; and Gen. Colin Powell, USA (Ret.), and his wife, 
Alma.