MONS, Belgium -- To the blasts of a ceremonial 17-gun salute, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark handed over NATO military command Wednesday to U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston.

Clark, the first soldier to take the NATO military alliance to war in its 50-year history, said his near three-year term as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) was "simply the greatest privilege, greatest honor, greatest gift of my life."Clark, a four-star general, fell out with his Pentagon superiors and the Clinton administration as he sought to escalate NATO's bombing campaign last year against hard-line Serb President Slobodan Milosevic.

In a short address to hundreds of uniformed officials and dignitaries, who braved cold and fine drizzle under marquees at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in southern Belgium, Clark showed no bitterness for leaving his post ahead of schedule.

Instead he thanked NATO member governments and his military colleagues "for their guidance, encouragement and support" during his term.

"Together we have demonstrated that there is nothing stronger than the power of ideas . . . ideas of freedom, law and justice and that democratic peoples united in a vision of a common imperative form an irresistible and magnetic force which is transforming the very nature of Europe," he said.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said Clark was an exceptional soldier and inspirational military leader who, through a mix of "military expertise, political savvy and cool diplomacy," had made "an outstanding contribution to the success of the alliance."

"You were, without any doubt, the right man in the right place at the right time," Robertson told Clark.

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