The New York Times

April 2, 1999

CRISIS IN THE BALKANS: THE WHITE HOUSE

Clinton, Appealing for Public Support, Says Milosevic Is Accountable for G.I.'s Safety

ORFOLK, Va. -- Denouncing the Serbs' capture of three American soldiers, President Clinton vowed forcefully to pursue the Balkan bombing campaign and appealed to the nation for "determination and resolve."

"We can't respond to every tragedy in every corner of the world," the president said in a speech to hundreds of military personnel in a cavernous squadron hangar at the Naval Air Station here on Thursday. "But just because we can't do everything for everyone doesn't mean that, for the sake of consistency, we should do nothing for no one."

In his first trip outside Washington since NATO air strikes began eight days ago, the president spoke emotionally in casting President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia as the architect of the violence in Kosovo and of the refugee crisis spilling across southeastern Europe. The president also said that America holds Milosevic and his government responsible for the safety of three U.S. soldiers captured Wednesday.

Clinton was joined by Defense Secretary William Cohen and General Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he promised that America would do all it could to get the soldiers back, a signal of resolve to Milosevic as well as to the American public and a Congress sharply divided over an operation that has failed in its basic objective of stopping brutalities in Kosovo.

"The United States takes care of its own," the president said, standing in front of two jet-fighters, an F-18 Hornet and an F-14 Tomcat, and generating applause for the only time during his 25-minute speech.

In a sharp aside directed at Milosevic, Clinton declared: "There was absolutely no basis for them to be taken. There is no basis for them to be held. There is certainly no basis for them to be tried."

Congress was scattered for the Easter recess, but several members of the leadership joined Clinton in calling Milosevic to account. Others, including Reps. Dick Armey and Tom DeLay, who have been sharp critics of Clinton's Kosovo policy, were silent.

Sen. Trent Lott, the majority leader from Mississippi, said in a statement that Milosevic "should make no mistake. He will be held accountable for any harm done to these American servicemen and must guarantee their safe return. This is not a vague threat from the pages of international law, but a promise from the people of the United States."

For some members of Congress the capture of the three soldiers raised further doubts about ground troops. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who announced this week that he would sponsor legislation to provide $25 million to arm the Kosovo Liberation Army, said that the capture "strengthens my belief that we shouldn't send in ground troops. I think America has been lulled into a sense of complacency about armed conflict."

In contrast, the steady stream of reported atrocities committed by Serb troops against ethnic Albanians prompted two New York Democratic congressmen, Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, to call for NATO ground forces to create safe havens inside Kosovo for the refugees.

"Only troops on the ground can stop the murders and crimes against humanity," the lawmakers said in a statement.

In his speech, the president said that Milosevic had violated specific commitments he had given "to us, to our NATO allies, to other European countries and to Russia." The violence against Kosovo's Albanians is "happening to people who embrace peace and promise to lay down their own arms. They put their trust in us, and we can't let them down."

The president said to his audience: "Think how you would feel if you were part of the half a million people who lived peaceably in a place, just wanted to be let alone to practice your religion and educate your children and do your work; if people came to your house and your village and said, 'Pack up your belongings and go. We're going to burn your property records. We're going to burn your identity records. And if your husband or your son is of military service age, we might take them out behind the barn and shoot them dead' -- just because you have a different religion, just because you have a different ethnic background. Is that really what we want the 21st century to be about for our children?"

One member of the administration's foreign policy team said the speech marked a stepped-up campaign to mobilize public opinion in support of the Balkan policy and to blunt critics who might seize on the capture of the three G.I.'s as further proof that the NATO operation is flawed.

"Honestly, I don't know how it's going to cut politically," said the official. "I hope it makes people mad and I hope it makes the American public mad. We have to get people to rally around this. We're in a major significant test of wills between western civilization and a brutal thug. We have to prevail." Institution, said that Clinton still needed to frame the mission, which at this point has several tangents, in a coherent way.

"The president has to pull it all together, and he didn't do it the first time around," Hess said of Clinton's televised address from the Oval Office last week. "It wasn't a forceful speech. The language wasn't forceful. He used too many subordinate clauses." But he said the president was unlikely to undertake a "full-scale public relations campaign" because it could back him into a corner.

Clinton's aides said Thursday's address was not a matter of getting the speech right but a matter of keeping the objectives clearly before the public. "It's not something you do once," said P.J. Crowley, a national security spokesman. "As it unfolds, you keep reminding the American people what the interests are and what the American objectives are."

Clinton repeated much of the history and geography lesson that he employed in his Oval Office address, underscoring the threat that Milosevic posed to Europe. He said that Milosevic was committing atrocities "at the doorstep of NATO, which has preserved the security of Europe for 50 years." He said that the kind of ethnic and religious hatred in Kosovo is "one of the dominant problems the whole world faces. And this is right in the underbelly of Europe." And he asked: "Are we, in the last year of the 20th century, going to look the other way as entire peoples in Europe are forced to abandon their homelands or die?"

The president's speech brought a mixed but generally supportive reaction from those who came to hear him.

"I fully support the mission," said Paul Brown, 32, a software engineer who recently completed his Naval service and is now under contract at the base. "We can't allow genocide and ethnic cleansing -- that was the same as World War II and our own Civil War."

Like others, he said he supported the deployment of ground troops. "Ground troops would be more effective because the planes and ships can't hit every target," he said. "Whether the American people like it or not, that's what the armed forces is about."

Sherri Burt, 35, whose husband serves on the USS Harry S Truman, is less enthusiastic. "It's not our fight to begin with," she said, cradling her 6-month-old son, Thomas. "There are a lot of other civil wars we're not involved in, and I guess I don't understand why President Clinton picked this one. I wish we weren't involved. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

The capture of the three soldiers, she said, makes it more likely the United States will become entangled and not be able to get out.

Some of those likely to go declined to comment on the mission itself. "We do what we're told," said Capt. Mike Steadman of the Marine Corps. "The mission is clear. The question is, how do we achieve it? A lot of military people say you can't win a war by air power alone."

Several said that people in the military were more likely than others to support the idea of fighting for freedom. "We pay attention to what's going on in the world," said Steven Argroves, 27, a yeoman first class. "We understand that his purpose in sending us is to prevent another world war."

Before Clinton spoke, he met for about an hour in private with the families of men already overseas. Despite the mounting war effort in Serbia, some of those families used their rare time with the commander-in-chief to complain about low pay and lack of day care in the military, prompting the President to say in his public address, "We know we owe you fair pay, decent housing and other support."