Seeking to build support for sending U.S. troops to the Balkans, President Clinton said Saturday that "our values, our interests and our leadership are at stake" in the effort to safeguard the Bosnian peace agreement reached last week.
Devoting most of his weekly radio speech to Bosnia, Clinton foreshadowed the argument he is expected to make in a televised address from the Oval Office on Monday night. He appealed repeatedly to national pride in America's values and leadership, and he said that U.S. troops will have the authority to meet any threat to their safety "with immediate and decisive force.""The Bosnian people have suffered unspeakable atrocities - mass executions, ethnic cleansing, campaigns of rape and terror," Clinton said. He recounted the grim statistics of the 3 1/2-year-old Bosnian war: 250,000 dead, more than 2 million people driven from their homes, most of them still refugees.
"The violence done to those innocent civilians does violence to the principles on which America stands," Clinton said. "The only way to secure a commitment for good is to secure a commitment to peace. Now our conscience demands that we act."
Clinton won a diplomatic triumph last week when the presidents of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia agreed to end to Europe's worst conflict since World War II. The accord was reached after intense peace talks at Wright-Paterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio.
But now the president faces a critical test as he attempts to convince a skeptical public and hostile Congress of the need to send 20,000 U.S. troops to join the 40,000 other NATO soldiers that will enforce the peace.
While Clinton has maintained that he has the constitutional authority as commander in chief to dispatch troops on his own, he plans to ask for congressional support. Administration officials have said the president will seek a vote in Congress on a nonbinding resolution similar to the one President George Bush narrowly pushed through Congress before the Persian Gulf War.
Sen. Bob Dole, the majority leader, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich both said earlier last week that Clinton had yet to make a solid case for sending U.S. troops to the Balkans and that he would face many questions about the mission.
"The president is obligated to demonstrate to the American people that the mission to Bosnia is vital to our national interest and that it is well-defined and achievable," Gingrich said just hours after the peace accord was reached Tuesday.
Clinton began his campaign to win support for sending troops to the Balkans the moment he announced the peace agreement in an appearance in the White House Rose Garden, reminding Americans of the war atrocities that they had seen so often on their television screens.
He intends to use a favorite presidential tool for reaching public opinion - an address to the nation from the Oval office - at 6 p.m. MST Monday, hours after being briefed on the operational plan for the troop deployment by Defense Secretary William Perry.
The Oval Office address, however, is only part of the extensive administration effort now underway. Friday, the White House released letters from the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian leaders insuring "the safety and security" of U.S. troops.
Sunday, Perry, Anthony Lake, Clinton's national security adviser, and Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke, the chief U.S. peace negotiator, will make the administration's case on the morning television talk shows. And key members of the president's foreign policy team are to testify on Capitol Hill in the coming week.
Delivering the Republican response to Clinton's remarks Saturday, Rep. Susan Molinari of New York was cautious.
"Our soldiers' burdens will be to protect new boundaries drawn with the blood of innocent Bosnian men, women and children," she said. "This, my friend, is the tragic reality which awaits our troops and must be discussed quickly and honestly with the American people."
Clinton is expected to brief congressional leaders on the troop plan Tuesday morning before he sets off for a long-scheduled trip to England, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Spain. Next Saturday he plans a second radio address on Bosnia.