[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 22 (Monday, June 7, 1999)]
[Pages 1013-1019]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Commencement Address at the United States Air Force Academy 
in Colorado Springs

June 2, 1999

    Thank you very much. General Oelstrom, Mrs. Oelstrom; General and 
Mrs. Ryan; General and Mrs. Myers; General Lorenz, Mrs. Lorenz; General 
and Mrs. Wagie; Colonel

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Wilbourne; Cadet Friedman; Acting Secretary Peters, whom I intend to 
nominate as Secretary of the Air Force; ladies and gentlemen.
    I'd like to also acknowledge, particularly, four graduates of the 
Air Force Academy that I brought to this ceremony today because they are 
serving our country ably in the White House: Bob Bell, class of 1969, my 
Senior Counsel for Defense Policy and Arms Control, who is soon to 
become the Assistant Secretary General of NATO; Colonel Ed Rice, class 
of 1978; Lieutenant Colonel Betsy Pimentel, class of 1980; and my White 
House physician, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Tubb, class of 1981. The Air 
Force Academy has been good to our administration and to the White 
House.
    To the families and friends of the graduating class, and especially 
to you, the members of the class of 1999, I extend heartfelt 
congratulations. It's been a long road from Doolie Summer to graduation. 
But you have achieved, as General Oelstrom told me, an unparalleled 
record of academic achievement, athletic success, and excellence in your 
military endeavors. From here on out, the sky is the limit for you.
    I want to offer special congratulations to the graduates from other 
nations who are part of this class. We wish you well as you return home 
and hope you will forever cherish your bonds with the Academy and your 
classmates.
    Now, before I go any further, I want to carry out a venerable 
tradition. By the power vested in me as Commander in Chief, I hereby 
grant amnesty to cadets who are marching tours or serving restrictions 
or confinements for minor misconduct.
    One of the cadets suggested I also raise everyone's grades. 
[Laughter] But I'm told that even the Commander in Chief can't do that.
    Just a moment ago, I participated in another traditional ceremony 
I've been part of every year but one since I became President--it's now 
up there almost as routine and sacrosanct as giving the State of the 
Union Address, lighting the White House Christmas tree, or pardoning the 
Thanksgiving turkey. For the sixth time in 7 years, I presented the 
Commander in Chief's Trophy to the Air Force Academy Falcons.
    Many believe it was the best team in the Academy's history, with a 
12-1 record, a top-10 ranking, victory in the conference, in the bowl 
game, over Army and Navy. In the last two seasons, second in the Nation 
in scoring defense to Ohio State, where the linebackers are the size of 
C-130's. [Laughter] And the team did all this in spite of an incredibly 
sportsman-like decision never to deploy a ``stealth'' running back or 
throw a single, laser-guided pass. I appreciate that, and I congratulate 
you.
    Ladies and gentlemen, the class of 1999 represents--and today you 
rededicate yourselves--to the same remarkable combination of 
accomplishment, grit, and self-sacrifice our service men and women have 
embodied for more than two centuries now. You can be reminded by that 
just by looking over at Sijan Hall, named for a Medal of Honor winner 
tortured and killed in Vietnam, to be reminded of the finest example of 
courage and honor in terrible and terrifying circumstances.
    Those qualities are on display today when Air Force men and women 
serve at home and abroad, from Iraq to Korea, to helping hurricane 
victims in Central America, and now in the historic effort to reverse 
the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and restore the people of that shattered 
land to their homes.
    A month ago I went to our airbases at Spangdahlem and Ramstein, 
Germany, to visit the pilots and support crews who are flying our 
missions over Kosovo and the young people in uniform bringing aid to the 
refugees there. I wish every American could have been with me to see the 
courage, the intensity, the skill it takes for our pilots to fly these 
aircraft at high speeds through enemy defenses, putting ordinance on 
target, putting their own lives in greater danger to avoid civilian 
casualties on the ground, coordinating with aircrews from more than a 
dozen other countries, then coming home to debrief, rest, and do it all 
over again.
    These young Americans know they're doing the right thing. They're 
determined to prevail. It is impossible to see them and talk to them and 
come away with the slightest

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iota of cynicism about our Nation and our role and responsibilities in 
the world.
    We are joined today here by two of these brave American airmen. I 
cannot mention their names, under our procedures, for they are still 
flying missions in Kosovo. But the first is a pilot of a B-2 bomber who 
graduated from the Academy in 1986 and who has flown his craft from 
Whiteman Air Force Base on strike missions over heavily defended areas 
in Serbia. The second graduated from the Academy in 1980 and now flies a 
C-130, ferrying lifesaving supplies to the refugees fleeing Kosovo. I 
would like to ask them to stand and ask you to recognize them for their 
courage and for their service. [Applause] I am very proud of them and 
very proud of you for following in their tradition.
    America became a great nation not just because our land was generous 
to those who settled it, not just because our forebears who came here 
were clever and worked hard, but also because whenever our beliefs and 
ideals have been threatened, Americans have always stepped forward to 
defend them.
    Kosovo is a small province in a small country, but it's a big test 
of what we believe in and stand for: Our commitment to leave to our 
children a world where people are not uprooted and slaughtered en masse 
because of their racial or ethnic heritage or their religious faith; our 
fundamental interest in building a lasting peace in an undivided, free 
Europe so that young Americans never have to go there again to fight and 
perish in large numbers; our interest in preserving our Alliance for 
freedom and peace with our 19 NATO Allies.
    There are also differences, however, between this conflict and those 
we have waged in the past. Kosovo is a communications age conflict, as 
General Oelstrom and I were just discussing. It is waged at a time when 
footage of airstrikes is beamed to homes across the world even before 
our pilots have returned to their bases, a time when every accidental 
civilian casualty is highlighted, but also when the victims of terrible 
war crimes can give testimony to the whole world within days of those 
crimes being committed.
    In World War II, Americans knew they were fighting to end a great 
horror. But what news we had then about Nazi atrocities came to us 
delayed and piecemeal from the few refugees and couriers who managed to 
escape occupied Europe. It was only in victory, when our soldiers 
liberated the concentration camps, that Americans truly saw the face of 
the evil we had defeated.
    Today, our pilots over Kosovo see the smoke of burning villages 
beneath them, the tanks and artillery that set them ablaze. When they 
turn to base, they watch the news; they see the faces of the fleeing 
refugees marching so many miles over mountains with only the belongings 
they can carry on their backs, pushing their elderly along in 
wheelbarrows. They hear the voices of victims telling stories of young 
men singled out and shot along the road, young women raped, and children 
torn from their parents. They also hear the voices of those who say all 
is not lost because the nations of NATO are with us and will not let us 
down.
    Our service men and women can see today what we are fighting against 
and what we are fighting for. So can the American people and the entire 
world.
    Now, Mr. Milosevic has been indicted by the U.N. War Crimes 
Tribunal, the first time a sitting leader of a nation has been held 
responsible by an international body for ordering war crimes and crimes 
against humanity.
    There are still some who assert that our bombing is somehow 
responsible for the atrocities his forces have committed against the 
Kosovar people. That reminds me of the old story of the young boy who 
came running home to his mother with a bloody nose. When his mother 
asked him what happened, he replied, ``It all started when the other kid 
hit me back.'' [Laughter]
    We know that by the time our airstrikes began, the Serb campaign of 
executions and expulsions had already started. In fact, Mr. Milosevic 
has been indicted in part for a massacre that took place in January. 
Tens of thousands of refugees already had been pushed from their homes 
in carefully pre-planned attacks. Serbian forces were already positioned 
for the offensive we have seen unfold.
    Mr. Milosevic already had unleashed in Kosovo the same paramilitary 
warlords who spent 4 years ethnically cleansing Bosnia and

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Croatia, where 2\1/2\ million people were driven from their homes and a 
quarter million were killed before NATO bombing and the resistance of 
Bosnians and Croatians brought us to the Dayton peace agreement.
    Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was not a response to bombing. It is the 
10-year method of Mr. Milosevic's madness. Had we done nothing, the 
tragedy would have been permanent, accepted, and in effect, condoned by 
the world community.
    Now, Mr. Milosevic had 40,000 troops and nearly 300 tanks in and 
around Kosovo before he rejected the peace agreement the Kosovars 
accepted. He could not be prevented, therefore, from driving the 
Kosovars from their land. But he can be prevented from keeping them out 
of their land. His 10-year cleansing campaign will end once and for all.
    This time the world did not wait, as we did in Bosnia, for 4 more 
years of fruitless appeals to reason in the face of evil. We have acted 
quickly to end this horror, and that is exactly what we will do.
    Let me be clear about why we have done this and how we intend to 
meet our goals. As members of the United States Air Force, the members 
of this class especially are entitled to know.
    Our reasons are both moral and strategic. There is a moral 
imperative because what we're facing in Kosovo is not just ethnic and 
religious hatred, discrimination and conflict, which are, unfortunately, 
too abundant in this world. America and NATO's military power cannot be 
deployed just because people don't like each other or even because they 
fight each other.
    What is going on in Kosovo is something much worse and, thankfully, 
more rare: an effort by a political leader to systematically destroy or 
displace an entire people because of their ethnicity and their religious 
faith; an effort to erase the culture and history and presence of a 
people from their land. Where we have the ability to do so, we as a 
nation and our democratic allies must take a stand against this. We do 
have the ability to do so at NATO's doorstep in Europe.
    But there is also a clear strategic imperative. Since I took office, 
I've worked hard to build for you and your future a Europe that, for the 
first time in history, is undivided, democratic, and at peace. Because 
if there is anything we have learned from the bloody 20th century with 
its two World Wars, it is that peace and stability in Europe is vital to 
our own security and freedom.
    Now, think what the United States has helped to accomplish in the 
last few years. Many thought the NATO Alliance would wither and die 
after the cold war. But it is strong and vital, with new partnerships 
with 25 nations, stretching all the way from the Baltic Sea to central 
Asia. Three new democracies, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, 
which spent the last half century struggling for their own freedom in 
the cold war, are now our NATO Allies defending the freedom of 
Europeans.
    We've helped Russia deal with the difficult challenges it faces on 
the road to democracy and stability, the road to being a part of and a 
partner in Europe. We also helped immeasurably to end the war in Bosnia, 
and now we're keeping the peace there with a coalition that unites every 
former adversary in all of European history: France and Germany, Germany 
and Poland, Poland and Russia, Russia and the United States.
    We have made clear that NATO membership will remain open to other 
responsible democracies from central and southeastern Europe. And 
through our efforts in the Balkans, we have also helped to bridge the 
gulf between Europe and the Islamic world, the source of so much trouble 
over the last millennium, and the source of troubling tensions still 
today.
    The killing Mr. Milosevic unleashed in the former Yugoslavia a 
decade ago is now the last major barrier to a Europe whole, free, and at 
peace, the last gasp of an aggressive nationalism that has shattered the 
lives of so many Europeans in this century and drawn so many Americans 
to fight there in wars. It threatens all the progress made in Europe 
since the end of the cold war.
    Imagine what would have happened had we let the violence in Kosovo 
escalate without taking a stand. NATO would have been discredited for 
doing nothing about ethnic conflict and cleansing on its doorstep. The

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refugees would have ended up a people without any prospect of going 
home--overwhelming, perhaps even destabilizing the new, fragile 
democracies of southeastern Europe with their permanent presence and 
bitter grievances. Tensions with Russia over the Balkans would not have 
disappeared; they would have increased. And the fighting might very well 
have spread to other countries.
    Letting Mr. Milosevic succeed would have sent a clear message to 
other unscrupulous leaders: If you have ethnic or religious problems, 
just kill the minorities or drive them out. No one will stop you, you 
won't pay a significant price. In a way, the world will make your job 
easier by feeding the refugees and finding them permanent homes without 
pressing for their return.
    Slobodan Milosevic would then have become a model of success for 
21st century rulers trying to obliterate multiethnic societies, instead 
of the symbol of the bankrupt policies based on hate that we want to 
confine to the dustbin of history.
    Our strategy for reversing Mr. Milosevic's ethnic cleansing begins 
with clarity about the goals we are fighting to achieve. The refugees 
must be able to go home with security and self-government. For that to 
happen, Serbian forces must leave Kosovo. An international security 
force with NATO at its core must deploy to protect all the people of 
Kosovo, including the Serb minority there. Our diplomatic effort 
supports these goals. They will continue to make clear to Mr. Milosevic 
exactly what he must do to end the conflict. And our military campaign 
will continue until it does.
    We cannot grow weary of this campaign because Mr. Milosevic didn't 
capitulate when the first bombs fell. We cannot abandon a just cause 
because an adversary holds out for more than a few news cycles. I reject 
that. Our Allies reject that. I know the vast majority of Americans 
reject that. We must be willing to pay the price of time and effort to 
reverse the course of ethnic cleansing. The benefits will be far greater 
and last much longer than the costs.
    And day by day, night by night, our air campaign is succeeding. The 
pilots are doing a magnificent job. Mr. Milosevic is systematically 
losing his armed forces. NATO airstrikes are destroying ever-increasing 
numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery. We have eliminated 80 
percent of Serbia's modern fighters, most of its ability to produce 
ammunition, all its capacity to refine fuel, much of the rest of its 
military economy.
    Mr. Milosevic, in turn, has not eliminated the insurgent Kosovar 
Liberation Army. Their ranks are growing, and the longer he holds out, 
the more vulnerable he leaves his forces to the KLA's growing attacks.
    Meanwhile, there are growing signs of disaffection in Serbia: 
soldiers abandoning their posts, civilians protesting, young men 
avoiding conscription, prominent citizens calling on Milosevic to accept 
NATO's conditions. There is a clear choice before the Serbian leader. He 
can cut his losses now and accept the basic requirements of a just 
peace, or he can continue to force military failure and economic ruin on 
his people. In the end, the outcome will be the same.
    This week, we are deploying an additional 68 F-16's and F-15's to 
join the mission. We now have planes flying at all hours from every 
direction, from bases in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, the United 
States, and from carriers at sea. If we have the patience and 
determination to match the courage and skill of our men and women in 
uniform, we will achieve our goals.
    A second reason we have pursued this strategy is that it enables us 
to pursue our goal in a way that preserves the unity of NATO's 19 
democracies. We must maintain the solidarity between the United States, 
Canada, and Europe that has been vital to our past and is vital to our 
future security. And I am confident we will.
    A third important reason is to meet our goals in a way that 
strengthens, not weakens, our fundamental interest in a long-term 
positive relationship with Russia. Russia is now working with us on a 
solution that meets our requirements. We hope Russian troops will 
participate in the force that keeps the peace in Kosovo, just as they 
have done so well in our joint efforts in Bosnia.
    A fourth element is to prepare now for the difficult task of 
returning refugees to Kosovo and implementing the peace there. Yesterday 
NATO approved the outlines of KFOR, the force that will deploy to Kosovo

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once the conditions are met. Approximately 50,000 troops will take part 
in this effort. Our European Allies will provide the vast bulk of them, 
but America will also contribute, and we should.
    Today I am announcing my decision to provide about 7,000 of these 
troops for Kosovo, about 15 percent of the total force. The leading 
elements and headquarters are already in Albania and Macedonia, ready to 
deploy to Kosovo within a few hours to oversee the safe return of the 
refugees. The additional NATO forces required are beginning to move to 
the region.
    Finally, this strategy will enable us to put in place a plan for 
lasting peace and stability in the Balkans, when Mr. Milosevic is 
stopped and the ethnic cleansing is reversed. For that to happen, the 
European Union and the United States must be farsighted. We must do for 
southeastern Europe what we did for Western Europe after World War II, 
for central Europe, for Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and others 
after the cold war. We must give them a positive path to a prosperous, 
shared future, a unifying magnet more powerful than the pull of hatred 
and destruction which threatens to tear them apart.
    It is simply not true, as some have alleged, that the Balkan region 
has always been and always will be torn apart by ethnic and religious 
strife and violence, that they are somehow genetically predisposed to 
that. It isn't true. History does not support that conclusion. And 
today, the efforts of Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia to resolve their 
minority problems peacefully show that if leaders are responsible and if 
people have a positive future to work for, then they can live together 
and resolve their differences.
    Europe and the United States can and should support efforts to 
increase economic growth, trade, and investment, to strengthen 
democratic governments and institutions, to help the nations of the 
region join the European Union and NATO. We should also include Serbia 
in this effort if, but only if, it practices democracy, respects human 
rights, and has leaders who uphold the basic standards of human conduct.
    So I say again, why are we in Kosovo? Because we have a moral 
responsibility to oppose crimes against humanity and mass ethnic and 
religious killing and cleansing where we can. Because we have a security 
responsibility to prevent a wider war in Europe, which we know from our 
two World Wars would eventually draw America in at far greater cost in 
lives, time, and treasure.
    Why are we pursuing this particular strategy of massive bombing and 
diplomacy? Because it gives us the best chance of achieving all our 
objectives in Kosovo: First, the return of Kosovars with security and 
self-government, withdrawal of Serb forces and the deployment of the 
international security force with NATO at its core. Second, to maintain 
Allied unity. Third, to continue cooperation with Russia. Fourth, to 
maximize our capacity after the conflict is over to build a progressive, 
democratic, multiethnic Balkans region that will contribute to our 
economic growth as a world society and our security progress, not be a 
constant drain on our economy and a constant threat to our security.
    Why have we refused to close other doors and other options? Because 
we are determined to prevail. We are in Kosovo for the same reason you 
are here. Some things are worth fighting for: A future with the great 
alliance between the United States and Europe standing strong; a future 
not dominated by massive killing of innocent civilians because of the 
ethnic or racial heritage they were born with, or the way they worship 
God; a future in which leaders cannot keep, gain or increase their power 
by teaching their young people to hate or kill others simply because of 
their faith or heritage; a future in which young Americans who set out 
from this academy to serve our country will not have to fight in yet 
another major European conflict.
    That is the future we want you to have. That is the future we want 
your children to inherit. I thank you for your willingness to contribute 
to that future. I thank you for your dedication to your country.
    Good luck to you all, and Godspeed.

Note: The President spoke at 11:28 a.m. in Falcon Stadium at the United 
States Air Force Academy. In his remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. Tad J. 
Oelstrom, USAF, Superintendent, United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), 
and his wife, Sandra; Gen. Michael E. Ryan, USAF, Air Force

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Chief of Staff, and his wife, Jane; Gen. Richard B. Myers, USAF, 
Commander in Chief, U.S. Space Command, and his wife, Mary Jo; Brig. 
Gen. Stephen R. Lorenz, USAF, Commandant of Cadets, USAFA, and his wife, 
Leslie; Brig. Gen. David A. Wagie, USAF, Dean of the Faculty, USAFA, and 
his wife, Sue; Col. Henry B. Wilbourne, USAF, Command Chaplain, USAFA; 
Cadet Chief Master Sergeant Jon R. Friedman, USAF, Cadet Wing 
Superintendent, USAFA; F. Whitten Peters, Acting Secretary of the Air 
Force and nominee to be Secretary of the Air Force; and President 
Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and 
Montenegro). The President also referred to the Kosovo International 
Security Force (KFOR).