Speech to the Penniscola Chamber of Commerce, Hampton, Va.

Dr. John P. White, Deputy Secretary of Defense

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Tuesday, Dec. 5, 1995 - 12:30 p.m.

Dr. White: As indicated, I'd like to spend a few minutes talking about

Bosnia. We are now beginning in small ways to deploy troops into Bosnia as

of yesterday. This is, as you know, a complicated subject, fundamentally

important subject. The Pentagon, when you ask to have a briefing on Bosnia,

they ask whether you want the long briefing or the short briefing. We

obviously say the short briefing and that starts with the Ottoman Empire.

If you want the long briefing, that starts with the Birth of Christ and so

on. So, it's a long, these people have a long history. They have -- and

it's in many ways -- a rich history. We think of them as being at war with

each other all the time. It happens, if you happen to look at their

history, not to be true. Yes, they've had their wars but so have most of

the rest of Europe.

So, it is important I think that we put all of this in context and think

about it in terms of what I would call for you today the realities of

what's going on there. The first reality, and one that I think we all have

to really recognize, is that, while the Cold War is over and our situation

has changed, the critical nature of our relationships in Europe have not

changed. They are a major trading partner of ours in terms of western

Europe. The new countries that have come out in Europe after the fall of

the Soviet Union are beginning to be important partners of ours, both in

terms of national security and in terms of economics, which is critically

important.

And for the last 50 years, American Presidents and Congresses have

committed to and supported our leadership in Europe. It has been critical

to their success and I think critical to our joint success. Now, the war in

Bosnia fundamentally threatens our interests in that regard. It is not just

the terrible carnage and the deaths of..., 250,000 deaths over the last

four year. And we just had a [inaudible] team come back and he showed me a

lot of pictures of the destruction and so on in that region. That's

obviously very, very important.

But from a national security view, there are other things that are

important. We worry greatly about that war spreading. That is, if we do not

find a way to help these people live in peace, we are threatened and Europe

is threatened with a much larger war. It can go south, in terms of Albania,

in terms of the Kosovo area involving Greeks and Turks, and age old

entities in that region. It can go north in terms of Croatia and Serbia.

These are not academic concerns. We were vitally worried in the late summer

about a new war flaring up in that region between the Croatians and the

Serbians and we're not out of the woods on that one yet either. So, there

are very, very serious fundamental national security concerns from our

point of view.

The second reality I would submit is that this really is the best

opportunity we've had since this terrible war started. We've had a whole

set of agreements that you've read about in the papers over the years that

have not held and it didn't hold because the warring parties weren't ready

really to stop the fighting. But through a series of events, including

importantly U.S. leadership and the magnificent performance of our pilots

in terms of the bombing campaign that was run in the late summer, we have

been able to change the attitude to bring them to the negotiating table.

And through that device, we are in a situation where the people are clear

that they would like to, in fact, find a way to stop the war and get on

with the peace. We have now had a cease-fire that has been holding for

quite some time. We think we can continue that cease-fire on into the

foreseeable future.

So, as a result of that, we will now be committing forces large number of

forces, about 60,000 people who will go into Bosnia-Herzegovina proper. And

that's a relatively small -- a relatively small area. They will deploy

starting in very small numbers now. As I said, we started with the

so-called enabling force yesterday. That will not formally deploy the force

until after the peace agreement is signed, which we anticipate will be done

in Paris on the 13th and 14th just next week.

But nevertheless, we think it is an important opportunity. We think the

force can do what it needs to do in about a year. If you look at the tasks

of the force, which are very specific, they are all in the first six

months. You have to get on the ground, make sure your security is solid,

and then work with the parties to divide them according to the agreement

that they've all initialed so far, will sign, and then you have to monitor

the area around the various so-called separation of the parties in order to

make sure that you have the provisions of cease-fire safety that you need.

And then you have to help the civilian authorities as they go about holding

elections, standing up a civil government, moving refugees back into the

areas of choice and so on. And then that will also provide us with a number

of months in which to provide them breathing space that, when you meet with

them, they all tell you that they need in order to make this a success.

The third reality I would submit to you is that it is clearly a doable

plan. It comes in three parts. The first part and the part that we focused

on the most, and the American people have focused on the most, and what you

saw is the military part because it does commit American forces and it does

commit them and obviously, when you commit American forces in a complicated

environment like this, there is danger. And that's something that we fully

recognize.

What I want to stress is that this is a multi-national effort of basically

all of the NATO countries, but for Iceland, which doesn't really have a

force, will be committing their forces. So, we'll have 15 NATO countries.

We'll have probably about a dozen other countries, non-NATO countries who

will contribute to the force. We have more countries asking to join than we

will be able to accommodate. We will have a Russian brigade as a part of

this force. It's critical that we have the Russians involved not because we

need their military capability per se, but because we want to make them

part of Europe. That's all part of our process, to have them involved. The

Russians have agreed that they will be part of the American sector and they

will report to our American general, General Nash. And they will take

orders from General Joulwan in Brussels, again, an American commander. And

they have been clear with us that they are prepared to send forces to go to

the area under American leadership.

So, as I mentioned, we'll have about 60,000 forces. We have very clear

rules of engagement. We have highly trained troops. We have been running

our troops through intensive training in Germany over the last several

months in order to get them ready for this mission. They, of course, are

well armed and well equipped and we think well trained and well prepared.

The second part of this approach, of course, is that you have to leave

something behind and the something that you want to leave behind is,

basically, a functioning government and a functioning economy. This is an

economy that now is about 20 percent of what it was before this war

started. So, it's been devastating.

But, we have a major program with our European allies and, in terms of the

peace agreement, of a new government with parliament, where they had a

state with a judicial system with a calling for elections within six to

nine months after the signing of the agreement, and with a full array of

governmental functions which obviously is very, very important.

We also will have a major economic redevelopment program which will be led

by the Europeans which we will participate in. It will be largely a

European endeavor. That's critically important, obviously, in terms of

making sure that what's behind when the military forces leave is a real

society that's working together.

And the final element of our three-part plan is what we call military

stabilization. That is, in the agreement there specific arrangements for

drawing down the number of weapons in the area and the size of the forces

in the area. And then if there is still a gap between the Serbs, who are by

far the stronger and better equipped forces in the area, and the federation

government, which is made up of Croatians and Muslims, then we are prepared

and have ensured them that we are prepared to work with them through other

countries in order to see that they get the kind of equipment, or the

defense of equipment that they will need in order to assure their own

safety when the implementation force leaves.

So, I think we have a clear end state in terms of where we're going for the

military forces. We will have a clear division of territory for the various

entities there and we'll have a real government.

The fourth and last reality I want to emphasize with you is American

leadership. It is fundamental to the success of this enterprise that

America take the lead. We have only gotten this far because of American

leadership. It is only after the London Conference, in which we proposed

very specific rules under which we would provide air power in the region

which then were triggered by a task by the Serbs, that we got this far. We

got to a situation on the ground where they wanted to stop. The president

initiated a peace program that he put together and we sent our team over

there to negotiate that peace plan. It was not without cost. We lost three

of our colleagues in a tragic accident in Sarajevo during this peace

process. So, its been -- its had its difficulties.

But, it could not have been done without American leadership. We had the

Dayton meetings, which I will tell you, about at the very end we did not

think we were going to be close on. First, we were going to do it on Sunday

and then on Monday and then, finally, on Tuesday when we got the agreement.

I went out to Dayton for the agreement and for the formal initialing and

talked to all of the three parties and they will tell you that it will not

be done, could not be done, without American leadership. And that's echoed

by our NATO allies who, of course, were all there and participated in those

discussions.

Now comes the implementation. The implementation, as I indicated, has these

three parts to it. But the most important part, in terms of what has to be

done to show that we're committed, to show that we have the resolution to

work with these people and give them the chance they're asking, for is the

implementation force. That means NATO. NATO means American leadership. We

cannot have a NATO operation -- and effectively... This is the first real

NATO operation of this sort that's ever been done. It has to require

American leadership. We have American -- the American command structure

includes, of course, at the top General Joulwan and then Admiral Smith who

will be the commander on the ground of the complete implementation force.

So, we have American leadership in that regard.

If we do not have American leadership for this force, we will not have a

force. The Europeans have unfortunately displayed, in the almost four years

that have gone by, that they alone were not able to provide what was needed

in order to make this a success. Will it be risky? Yes, it certainly will

be risky. We're sending in some 20,000 American forces, principally the 1st

Armored Division from Germany. We, as I mentioned earlier, we have about

750 people going in this week to begin to set up various communications and

logistics and other functions through the region. And then after the

signing, we will then flow the forces who are ready to go into the region.

It will include, also reservists. We will send about 3,500 to 4,000

reservists will be called to active duty. Not all of them will go directly

to the region. Of course, some of them will be in Germany and replace

people who are in Croatia or in Hungary and at other bases. But, they will

be involved.

So, it will be a major effort and of course, we will keep our aviation

units there. We've still got a full capability there and we will also keep

our Navy there, which is there anyway. We have a carrier there and that's

critically important to the success of this effort.

So, it really is a NATO show, with NATO capability, with all the NATO

nations, with a whole set of other nations and that include the Russians,

as I indicated, and that provides us with the ability to bring others, --

the Poles and others like that -- into the fold, in terms of the long-term

efforts that we have in Europe.

So, it is I think, critically important that we do this. And I think that

we can do it on a time schedule that the President has indicated. I think

we can do it with the forces that we have. There are risks, but this is not

a war. We are not sending America's young men and women to a war. We are

sending them in on a peace operation. We have, as you look back on it over

the last 50 years, committed ourselves to support our European allies in

the post-World War II period. It has been one of the foundations of our

security strategy. And while the world has changed, our commitments in that

part of the world have really not changed. And the importance of Europe to

us has not changed.

We are now in the position where Bosnia threatens that peace, threatens a

wider war if we don't step in and show the leadership necessary in order to

make sure that this war does not flare up again.

So, it seems to me we have clearly opportunity here. It is an opportunity

that we ought to seize. Having gotten these people to stop fighting and

have a cease-fire, which now has been holding for a long time and has been

very successful, having gotten them to the negotiating table and committed

our prestige and our leadership to get them to sign an agreement which was

very contentious and very, very hard to sign. As you know, you don't make

peace with your friends. You make peace with your enemies. And it's always

very, very difficult. But having done that and having negotiated that

peace, it seems to me that we have to now take the next and final step and

provide them with the commitment they're all asking for, that is, American

leadership to see this through, give them the breathing space that they

want so that they can live in peace in the future.

Thank you very much.

- END -

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