United States, 1994

Let me first congratulate you, Mr.

President, on your election as President of the General

Assembly for its forty-ninth session. The American people

look forward to working with you to celebrate the United

Nations fiftieth anniversary.

We meet today at a time of great hope and change.

The end of the cold war, the explosion of technology and

trade and enterprise have given people the world over new

opportunities to live up to their dreams and their God-given

potential. This is an age of hope -yet in this new world,

we face a contest as old as history.

It is a struggle between freedom and tyranny; between

tolerance and bigotry; between knowledge and ignorance;

between openness and isolation. It is a fight between those

who would build free societies governed by laws and

those who would impose their will by force.

Our struggle today - in a world more high-tech,

more fast-moving, more chaotically diverse than ever - is

the age-old fight between hope and fear.

Three times in this century - from the trenches of the

Somme to the island of Iwo Jima to the shattered Wall in

Berlin - the forces of hope were victorious. But the

victors of the First World War squandered their triumph

when they turned inward, bringing on a global depression,

and allowing fascism to rise and reignite global war.

After the Second World War, the Allies learned the

lesson of the past. In the face of a new totalitarian threat

and the nuclear menace, great nations did not walk away

from the challenge of the moment. Instead they chose to

reach out, to rebuild and to lead. They chose to create the

United Nations and they left us a world stronger, safer

and freer.

Our generation has a difficult task: the cold war is

over. We must secure the peace. It falls to us to avoid

the complacency that followed the First World War -

without the spur of the imminent threat to our security

that followed the Second World War.

We must ensure that those who fought and found the

courage to end the cold war - those from both East and

West who loved freedom - did not labour in vain. Our

sacred mission is to build a new world for our children -

more democratic, more prosperous, more free of ancient

hatreds and modern means of destruction.

That is no easy challenge; but we accept it with

confidence. After all, the walls that once divided nations

in this very Hall have come down. More nations have

chosen democracy than ever before. More have chosen

free markets and economic justice. More have embraced

the values of tolerance and liberty and civil society that

allow us all to make the most of our lives.

But while the ideals of democracy and free markets

are ascendant, they are surely not the whole story.

Terrible examples of chaos, repression and tyranny also

mark our times. The twentieth century has proved that

the forces of freedom and democracy can endure against

great odds; our job is to see that in the twenty-first

century these forces triumph.

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The dangers we face are less stark and more diffuse

than those of the cold war, but they are still formidable:

the ethnic conflicts that drive millions from their homes;

the despots ready to repress their own people or conquer

their neighbours; the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction; the terrorists wielding their deadly arms; the

criminal syndicates selling those arms, or drugs, infiltrating

the very institutions of fragile democracies; a global

economy that offers great promise but also deep insecurity,

and in many places declining opportunity; diseases like

AIDS that threaten to decimate nations; the combined

dangers of population explosion and economic decline,

which prompted the world community to reach the

remarkable consensus at the Cairo Conference; global and

local environmental threats that demand that sustainable

development become a part of the lives of people all

around the world; and, finally, within many of our nations,

high rates of drug abuse and crime and family breakdown,

with all their terrible consequences. These are the dangers

we face today.

We must address these threats to our future.

Thankfully, the end of the cold war gives us a chance to

address them together. In our efforts, different nations may

be active in different situations in different ways, but their

purposes must be consistent with freedom and their

practices consistent with international law. Each nation will

bring to our common task its own particular strengths -

economic, political or military.

Of course, the first duty of every Member of the

United Nations is to its own citizens, to their security, their

welfare and their interests. As President of the United

States, my first duty is to the citizens of my country.

When our national security interests are threatened, we will

act with others when we can, but alone if we must. We

will use diplomacy when we can, but force if we must.

The United States recognizes that we also have a

special responsibility in these common endeavours that we

are undertaking, the responsibility that goes along with

great power and also with our long history of democracy

and freedom. But we seek to fulfil that responsibility in

cooperation with other nations. Working together increases

the impact and the legitimacy of each of our actions, and

sharing the burdens lessens everyone’s load. We have no

desire to be the world’s policeman, but we will do what we

can to help civil societies emerge from the ashes of

repression, to sustain fragile democracies, to add more free

markets to the world, and of course to restrain the

destructive forces that threaten us all.

In every corner of the globe, from South Africa to

Asia, to Central and Eastern Europe, to the Middle East

and Latin America, and now to a small island in the

Caribbean, ordinary citizens are striving to build their

own future. Promoting their cause is our generation’s

great opportunity, and we must do it together. A

coalition for democracy is good for America.

Democracies, after all, are more likely to be stable, less

likely to wage war; they strengthen civil society and can

provide people with the economic and political

opportunities to build their futures in their own homes -

not to flee their borders.

Our efforts to help build more democracies will

make us all more secure, more prosperous and more

successful as we try to make this era of terrific change

our friend, and not our enemy. In my nation, as in all of

your nations, there are many people who are

understandably reluctant to undertake these efforts

because often the distances are great or the cultures are

different. There are good reasons for the caution that

people feel. Often, the chances of success or its costs are

unclear. And, of course, in every common endeavour

there is always the potential for failure and often the risk

of loss of life.

And yet our people - as we have seen in the

remarkable global response to the terrible crisis in

Rwanda - genuinely want to help their neighbours around

the world and to make some effort in our common cause.

We have seen that progress can be made as well. The

problem is deciding when we must respond and how we

shall overcome our reluctance. This will never be easy.

There are no simple formulas. All of us will make these

decisions in part based on the distance of the problem

from our shores, the interests of our nation, the difference

we think we can make, the costs required, or the threat to

our own citizens in the endeavour.

Hard questions will remain, and cannot be erased by

some simple formula. But we should have the confidence

that these efforts can succeed, whether they are efforts to

keep people alive in the face of terrible tragedy, as in

Rwanda, or our efforts to avert a tragedy, as in the Horn

of Africa, or our efforts to support processes that are

literally changing the future of millions. History is on

our side. We should have confidence about this. Look

at the march of freedom we have seen in the last year

alone. Who, a decade ago, would have dared predict the

startling changes in South Africa, in the Middle East and

in Ireland; the stunning triumph of democracy and

majority rule and the redemption of the purpose of Nelson

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Mandela’s life; the brave efforts of Israel and its Arab

neighbours to build bridges of peace between their peoples;

the earnest search by the people of Northern Ireland and

Great Britain and Ireland to end centuries of division and

decades of terror? In each case, credit belongs to those

nations’ leaders and their courageous people. But in each

instance the United States and other nations were privileged

to help in these causes.

The growth of cooperation between the United States

and the Russian Federation also should give us all great

cause for confidence. This is a partnership that is rooted in

democracy, a partnership that is working, a partnership of,

not complete agreement, but genuine mutual respect. After

so many years of nuclear terror, our two nations are taking

dramatic steps to ease tensions around the world. For the

first time since the Second World War, foreign troops do

not occupy the nations of Central and Eastern Europe. The

Baltic nations are free. Russian and American missiles no

longer target each other’s people. Three of the four nuclear

members of the former Soviet Union have agreed to

remove all nuclear weapons from their soil. And we are

working on agreements to halt production of fissile

materials for nuclear explosives; to make dismantling of

nuclear warheads transparent and irreversible; and further

to reduce our nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles.

The United States and Russia also recognize that we

must cooperate to control the emerging danger of terrorists

who traffic in nuclear materials. To secure nuclear

materials at their sources, we have agreed with Russia to

stop plutonium production by the year 2000; to construct a

storage facility for fissile materials and buy up stocks of

weapons-grade fuel; and to combat the criminals who are

trying to smuggle materials for nuclear explosives. Our

two nations and Germany have increased cooperation and

engaged in joint anti-terrorist training. Soon, under the

leadership of our Federal Bureau of Investigation, we will

open a law enforcement training academy in Europe, where

police will learn how to combat more effectively trafficking

of nuclear weapons components, as well as the drug trade,

organized crime and money laundering.

The United States will also advance a wide-ranging

non-proliferation agenda: a global convention to halt

production of fissile materials; efforts to curb North

Korea’s nuclear ambitions; transparent procedures for

dismantling nuclear warheads; and our work to ban testing

and to extend the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons. And today I am proposing a first step

toward the eventual elimination of a less visible but still

deadly threat: the world’s 85 million anti-personnel land-

mines - one for every 50 persons on the face of the earth.

I ask all nations concerned to join with us and conclude

an agreement to reduce the number and availability of

those mines. Ridding the world of those often hidden

weapons will help to save the lives of tens of thousands

of men, women and innocent children in the years to

come.

Our progress in the last year also provides

confidence that in the post-cold-war years we can adapt

and construct global institutions that will help to provide

security and increase economic growth throughout the

world. Since I spoke here last year, 22 nations have

joined the Partnership for Peace of the North Atlantic

Treaty Organization (NATO). The first joint exercises

have been conducted, helping to give Europe the chance

to become a more unified continent in which democratic

nations live within secure borders. In Asia, security talks

and economic cooperation will lead to further stability.

By reducing nations’ fears about their borders and

allowing them to spend less on military defences, our

coalition for democracy can give nations in transition a

better chance to offer new freedoms and opportunities to

their own people. It is time that we think anew about the

structures of this global economy as well, tearing down

walls that separate nations instead of hiding behind them.

At the Group of Seven meeting at Naples this year

we committed ourselves to this task of renewal, to re-

examining the economic institutions that have served us

so well in the past. In the interests of shared prosperity,

the United States actively promotes open markets.

Though still in its infancy, the North American Free

Trade Agreement has dramatically increased trade

between the United States and Mexico and has produced

in the United States alone an estimated 200,000 new jobs.

It offers a model to nations throughout the Americas

which we hope to build on. And this week I will send

legislation to the Congress to implement the General

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the largest

trade agreement in all of history. GATT - and its

successor, the World Trade Organization - holds the

promise for all of us of increased exports, higher wages

and improved living standards. In the months and years

to come we will work no less to extend the reach of open

markets, starting with the Asia-Pacific Economic

Cooperation Council and the Summit of the Americas

later this year.

Here at the United Nations we must develop a

concrete plan to meet the challenges of the next 50 years

even as we celebrate the last 50 years. I believe we

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should declare next year’s fiftieth anniversary not just a

year of celebration but a year of renewal. We call on the

Secretary-General to name a working group so that by the

time we meet next year we will have a concrete action plan

to revitalize the obligations of the United Nations to address

the security, economic and political challenges ahead -

obligations we must all be willing to assume.

Our objectives should include ready, efficient and

capable United Nations peace-keeping forces, and I am

happy to report that, as I pledged last year and thanks to

support in the United States Congress, $1.2 billion is now

available from the United States for this critical account.

We must also pledge to keep United Nations reform

moving forward so that we do more with less, and we must

improve our ability to respond to urgent needs. Let me

suggest that it is time for the members of the Assembly to

consider seriously President Menem’s suggestion for the

creation of a civilian rapid-response capability for

humanitarian crises.

And let us not lose sight of the special role that

development and democracy can play in preventing

conflicts once peace has been established. Never before

has the United Nations been in a better position to achieve

the democratic goals of our founders. The end of the cold

war has freed us from decades of paralysing divisions. And

we all know that multilateral cooperation is not only

necessary to address the new threats we face but possible

to succeed.

The efforts we have undertaken together in Haiti are

a prime example. Under the sponsorship of the United

Nations, American troops, now being joined by the

personnel of an ever-growing international coalition of over

two dozen nations, are giving the people of Haiti their

chance at freedom. Creative diplomacy, the influence of

economic power and the credible threat of military force -

all have contributed to this moment of opportunity.

Essential civil order will be restored. Human rights

violations will be curbed. The first refugees will be

returning within hours, on this day. The military leaders

will step down. The democratic Government will be

restored. President Aristide will return. The multinational

mission will turn its responsibilities over to the United

Nations mission, which will remain in Haiti throughout

1995, until a new president is elected. During this time a

multinational development effort will make available more

than $1 billion to begin helping the Haitians rebuild their

country. In the spirit of reconciliation and reconstruction,

President Aristide yesterday called for the immediate easing

of sanctions so that the work of rebuilding can begin

immediately. Accordingly, I intend to act expeditiously,

within Security Council resolutions 917 (1994) and 940

(1994) to enable us to restore health care, water and

electrical services, construction materials for humanitarian

efforts, and communications, agricultural and educational

materials.

Today I am also announcing that the United States

will suspend all unilateral sanctions against Haiti except

those that affect the military leaders and their immediate

supporters. This will include regularly scheduled air

flights when the airport becomes available, financial

transactions and travel restrictions. I urge all other

nations to do the same.

In Haiti, the United States has demonstrated that it

would lead a multinational force when our interests are

plain, when the cause is right, when the mission is

achievable and the nations of the world stand with us.

But Haiti’s people will have to muster the strength and

the patience to travel the road of freedom. They have to

do this for themselves. Every new democratic nation is

fragile. But we will see the day when the people of Haiti

fulfil their aspirations to liberty and when they are once

again making genuine economic progress.

United Nations actions in Bosnia, like those in Haiti,

demonstrate that progress can be made when a coalition

backs up diplomacy with military power. For the first

time ever, NATO has taken, since we met last year,

military actions beyond the territory of its members. The

threat of NATO air power helped to establish the

exclusion zone around Sarajevo and to end the Bosnian

Serbs’ spring offensive against Gorazde. NATO’s

February ultimatum boosted our mediation efforts, which

helped to end the war between the Bosnian Government

and the Bosnian Croats and forged a federation between

those two communities. To that extent the situation in

Bosnia has improved, but in recent weeks the situation

around Sarajevo has deteriorated substantially, and

Sarajevo once again faces the prospect of strangulation.

A new resolve by the United Nations to enforce its

resolutions is now necessary to save Sarajevo, and NATO

stands ready to act.

The situation in Bosnia is yet another reminder of

the greatest irony of this century we are leaving. This

century, so full of hope and opportunity and achievement,

has also been an age of deep destruction and despair. We

cannot help but remember the millions who gave their

lives during two world wars and the half century of

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struggle by men and women in the East and West who

ultimately prevailed in the name of freedom.

But we must also think of our children and the world

we will leave them in the twenty-first century. History has

given us a very rare opportunity - the chance to build on

the greatest legacy of this century without reliving its

darkest moments. And we have shown that we can carry

forward humanity’s ancient quest for freedom to build a

world where democracy knows no borders but where

nations know their borders will always be secure, a world

that gives all people the chance to realize their potential and

to live out their dreams.