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DOLE ON FOREIGN POLICY
JUNE 25, 1996
TRANSCRIPT
Bob Dole spoke this afternoon to the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia. The topic was American foreign policy in Eastern Europe and NATO expansion.
SEN. BOB DOLE, Republican Presidential Candidate: America's interest in Poland, in Europe, are as compelling and as urgent as they were before the Berlin Wall was breached by the stronger forces of human yearning. Yet, President Clinton has persistently deferred to our allies and to the Russians, subordinating America interests to the interests of a dubious or ineffective consensus. That's not leadership. Now that has armed the interest of all of us, Russian, European, and American alike.
What is urgently needed is a restoration of American leadership in Europe, leadership that understands the purpose and promise of America's role in Europe. And let us begin by reaffirming that Europe's security is indispensable to the security of the United States and that American leadership is absolutely indispensable to the security of Europe. We must not continue to entrust American leadership to would-be statesmen still suffering from post Vietnam syndrome.
This historic moment will not wait upon administration officials who believe that our Cold War mission was a mistake, was mistaken, not principled and noble, and who are still suffering from the illusion that Communism merely fell instead of being pushed. It is time to take our foreign policy out of the hands of an administration engaged in the dreamy pursuit of an international order that cherishes romantic illusions about the soul of a former adversary, an administration that doubts American power, questions American purpose, and cannot fulfill American promise. Nothing better illustrates, in my view, President Clinton's failure of leadership than his uncertain and vacillating policies toward Bosnia already mentioned by the governor.
Now keep in mind that in 1992, candidate Clinton came to Pennsylvania and said we ought to lift the arms embargo and we ought to have air strikes. And I remember going to the White House in early 1993 and sitting with the President and the Vice President and about 20 other members of Congress. And I was there to support the President because I had the same view. But suddenly it went off the radar screen. It disappeared as an issue. Now after sort of haphazardly getting America into Bosnia President Clinton has no idea how to get Americans out or how to accomplish the mission they went to fulfill. President Clinton promised, promised me to lift the arms embargo, then he changed his mind.
And as we move from that part of the world to Russia, my policy will reinforce the independence of all the states--let me underscore all the states--of the former Soviet Union, and will support the new democracy of Europe and will lead to the enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance, and will advance effective counter-proliferation measures. I will stand firmly with the champions of democracy. I will not grant Russia a veto over NATO enlargements. The Russians should be told that NATO is a defensive alliance. As everybody here knows, it is not now and has never been the NATO of the old Soviet propaganda. When I'm elected President, I will urge NATO to begin accession talks with Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic and to set the goal of welcoming new NATO members at a summit in Prague in 1998, which happens to be the 60th anniversary of the betrayal of Munich, the 50th anniversary of the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, and the 30th anniversary of the Soviet invasion. There could be no more appropriate year or no more appropriate place to declare that Central Europe had become a permanent part of the Atlantic community.
So the hope of the world still rests, as it has throughout this century, on American leadership. And that's the point I would make. It still rests on American leadership. Richard Nixon had in his last book, Beyond Peace, the American people are tired of paying their tax--they're tired of leadership, they want to give it to somebody else. Then you ask the rhetorical question, who--China, Japan, go right down the list, no, no, no. There's no other country in the world that has the potential to accept the leadership and accept the responsibility that we have, than America. And there is no escaping the fact that only America can lead. Others cannot or will not or should not. And how firmly we grasp the remarkable opportunity before us in Europe will determine whether the next century repeats the violence and tragedy of the last, or opens up a new era of peace and freedom and security. And I happen to think the promise of the future has never been greater, and I believe with strong, decisive American leadership we can make that promise a reality for ourselves and the generations to come.
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