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| SECRETARY ALBRIGHT | |
 March 24, 1999 
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On the first day of NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses the alliance's objectives.
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MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, Secretary of State: Good to be with you, Jim. JIM LEHRER: Is there any late word on the effectiveness of the bombing thus far? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: No, we have no assessments yet and I'm not going to comment on the air campaign. JIM LEHRER: What about... have you heard any word from Milosevic or anybody around him since the bombing began? |
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The bombing begins. |
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JIM LEHRER: So they could call... I mean, in other words, the calling card has been left. Call us if you have a change of heart, Mr. Milosevic, and somebody will answer the call. Is that correct? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: That's for sure. I think everybody wants to... we have tried from the beginning here, Jim, to solve this peacefully we've been working on that for a very long time, very intensively in the last months but have been working on it for years, actually. And Milosevic has made that impossible because it is impossible for us to negotiate and have discussions and talk about peace settlements while he is building up his forces around Kosovo and, in fact, going around torching villages. So that we cannot sustain discussions while he is killing people and harassing them.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: No. He'd have to stop amassing his forces. Ambassador Holbrooke in his last attempt with him said that he had to withdraw these 40,000 forces that he's massed in and around Kosovo back to their barracks and be prepared to embrace the framework of the Rambouillet accords and talk on the basis of that. So there are these two things. He has to withdraw his forces or have a cease-fire or indicate that he is not moving in a way of offensively against the Kosovars and also indicate his willingness to embrace the Rambouillet accords. JIM LEHRER: So a statement of good intentions would not be enough? He would have to do something first, correct? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think many Milosevic's case, words don't mean anything, it's actions. |
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| The Russian reaction. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: Now, the Russian reaction to all of this, as we've just reported, has been particularly harsh. First of all, what do you make of Prime Minister Primakov's decision in midair, over the Atlantic, to turn around and go back rather than to go ahead with his visit? Was that a jarring experience for you?
JIM LEHRER: But, President Yeltsin called this open aggression, he called for Russia to get out of the NATO partnership. I mean, that's serious business, is it not? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, as I've said, they are seriously objecting
to the military aspect of this. We have totally different views on that.
But we do not on our long-run objective of having really continuing
what is a very important relationship between our two countries. JIM LEHRER: What is the thrust of their argument that they made to you and others in the U.S. government against taking military action against Milosevic? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, they believe that we ought to keep talking just as that segment that you had with President Yeltsin... that we ought to keep trying. But we did try. We have tried a very long time. The Russians themselves have tried. And I think that the thing that made it impossible to go on trying to have peace talks were Milosevic's actions, which were basically aggressive against the Kosovar people. He is the one that forced this by taking this action of moving additional forces, both the army and the special police, into Kosovo and was out of compliance with an agreement that he made with Ambassador Holbrooke in October. JIM LEHRER: Now, on the U.N., you saw our segment on the U.N. involvement today. Now, the U.N. security council is, in fact, in emergency session now. Can they do anything to change what NATO is up to at this point?
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| What is the U.N.'s role? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: So whatever the U.N. security council does, it's irrelevant? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that in this case the majority of the security council members do understand how this problem was created and I think if you parse Kofi Annan's statement very carefully, he also says that diplomacy has failed and that force at this stage needs to be used. JIM LEHRER: But he said that the U.N. should have a role in this. Do you dispute that? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that the U.N. has spoken on it and the reality here is if you hear what the Russians are saying and they're at the U.N., they would probably object to an operation like this and then the killing would go on. So I think that we are doing the right thing. All the NATO allies believe that. Secretary General Solana has been very strong on that and there are two security council resolutions already in existence under Chapter 7 and I think we need to move forward here. I hate to ever say that the United Nations does not have a role because, as you know, I served there, but I think we need to go forward. This is a NATO activity. This is security in Europe. This is what NATO's mission is. The security of Europe here generally, as the president said, is very important to us, it's important to the other NATO allies and we're doing the right thing.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, that is not our plan. We do not have... I think that NATO had some contingency planning for this, but this is not our plan to use ground forces, American ground forces. That is not part of the plan. JIM LEHRER: So you believe at this stage... well, I'll just ask you straight out. What is your own personal level of confidence that these air strikes... because you know all the details of what's planned and etc., obviously you're not going to share them with us. But you know what's planned. What is your own personal level of confidence that they will, in fact, get Milosevic to do what you want him to do? MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, let me say that the objectives of this... what the objectives of this are. First of all, we think Milosevic should choose the path of a peaceful settlement, that has been our goal and that's what we want. What we're trying to do through this military campaign is to deter him from going forward with his incursions into Kosovo and his aggressive activities against the people of Kosovo.
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| Learning the lessons of history. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| JIM LEHRER: But you take your knowledge of the... of what
is intended militarily and what your knowledge... what you know diplomatically
on your own and through Holbrooke and Hill and others who have been on
the ground there, etc., been involved in this, you've been involved in
this a long time, do the two come together? In other words, it adds up
to you that this military action can cause this diplomatic result in terms
of Milosevic?
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that if you put together all the calculations as you've discussed them, there is the very best chance that this will happen. One of the hardest parts here is dealing with a cruel and evil man like Milosevic who is only interested in maintaining himself in power and doesn't care at all about his people or even what the world thinks of him. But I think that if you calculate this on the basis of what we have been trying to do diplomatically and the strength, the force that we're putting in there, we believe that the objectives that I've outlined deter and damage our are achievable.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think the important part here is for us to be able to accomplish the objectives that I've spoken about and it's very hard to state specifically. I don't see this as a long-term operation. I think that this is something the deter and damage is something that is achievable within a relatively short period of time. But I truly, Jim, I'm not going to be pinned down on this. JIM LEHRER: I understand, and I'm not even going to try. Now, the members of the United States Senate, some members of the United States Senate, among others, have said that you and the president and others involved in the administration have yet to make the case for this operation effectively to the American people. First of all, do you agree with that? And if you do, what are you going to do about in the next few days?
This century has been the bloodiest and it was the... the blood has been spilled because the people did not understand well enough how to stop tyranny and evil and ethnic cleansing and genocide early enough. And we now have an opportunity to gather together the lessons of the 20th century and stop this before it totally spins out of control before more people are ethnically cleansed, before this spins out in a region of Europe that is important to the security of Europe, to the prosperity of Europe, and to the well-being of the United States for those two reasons. JIM LEHRER: Secretary Albright, thank you very much. |
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JIM
LEHRER: Now Secretary of State Albright. She joins us from the State
Department. Madam Secretary, welcome. 
MADELEINE
ALBRIGHT: No. There has been no contact, although I have to say Ambassador
Hill earlier today was in contact with his national security advisor,
that is Milosevic's to say that the diplomatic channels remain open
and that he is available, he is available if they want to continue diplomatic
discussions and they stop their aggressive activities against the Kosovars.
JIM
LEHRER: But if he were to call and say, "all right, you got me,
I'm ready to talk now. I'm ready to do something but you must stop the
bombing." would the United States... would NATO stop the bombing
to talk like... even as soon as tomorrow or the next day or whatever?
Is that an open question for you? 
MADELEINE
ALBRIGHT: Well, let me put this in the context. First of all, the Russians
have been very much a part of this whole process as members not only
of the contact group but one of the three negotiators at Rambouillet.
And they have been very supportive of the agreement itself, the political
parts of the agreement, and Foreign Minister Ivanov had gone to Belgrade
to persuade Milosevic and, I think there's a level of frustration that
the Russians share with the rest of us about the fact that Milosevic
did not want to engage on this document and had walked things backwards
from where we are in the first round of talks in France. The Russians
from the very beginning, however, have made clear that they are opposed
to military action and we have understood that. We have been totally
transparent with them in saying that we could not sustain a discussion
about peace while he was massing these forces, as I explained earlier.
And we made that clear and when Primakov... he knew as we kept talking,
Vice President Gore talked to him twice while he was in... coming here,
and I think that once Ambassador Holbrooke broke off the talks because
he wasn't getting anywhere then Primakov made that decision. But the
important part, Jim, and I have talked to the Russians myself today
and yesterday, we both acknowledge the importance of the U.S.-Russian
relationship and that in the medium... short, medium, and long term,
we have lots of interests together and we won't let this damage our
overall relationship.
MADELEINE
ALBRIGHT: No, because NATO, I think we believe there is... that NATO
is acting appropriately. NATO is a consensus operation as you know.
Now there are 19 countries in it. The remarkable thing has been the
unity of the allies and the determination. I've spent all day on the
phone and Secretary Cohen has talked to his counterparts and I've talked
to mine and there is real determination in this and complete unity.
I think that we believe that we have legitimate grounds on the basis
of two Security Council resolutions that were passed earlier that made
it very clear that Yugoslavia's aggression and activities creating a
humanitarian crisis was a threat to security. 
JIM
LEHRER: Speaking of the NATO mission, General Joulwan, retired General
Joulwan, who is the immediate past supreme commander of NATO forces
was on the program last night and he said NATO must be prepared to follow
these air strikes with ground force. Doesn't say they must be used,
but they must be prepared to use ground forces in order to make this
bombing attack effective in the long run. Do you agree with that? 
Our
attempt is to deter that because that, we think, is creating a humanitarian
disaster and is creating security problems. And then, if necessary,
to damage his capability of carrying on these kinds of aggressive activities
so if he's not deterred, then we will damage his capability to do so.
It is my strong belief on the basis of knowing what the target sets
are that this is something that can very well be accomplished and I
have complete confidence in the secretary of defense and the chairman
of the joint chiefs and, obviously, our military. 
JIM
LEHRER: Madam Secretary, do you see this as being a long-term operation
or short-term? Here, again, I'm not going to bother to waste the question
about how many days, how many weeks, or whatever. Can you give us any
time frame in your own mind, the ideal situation, as to how long it
might take to get where you want to go? 
MADELEINE
ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, I think that we have... many of us have
spoken out on it and the president is going to speak tonight to the
American people. I think in the statements that he's made in the last
few days he has tried and I think very successfully, to lay out the
historical aspects of this and the geographical aspects of it. I think
that there are... Americans are now being asked to think about countries
and places that they didn't know and can't pronounce, which was very
much the situation before the Second World War. And I think that we
have a responsibility to explain this, the American people have a responsibility
to learn about it. Because whenever American brave men and women are
put in harm's way, we need to explain this. I do think, Jim, that we
are. I do think, Jim, that we are with a veryimportant moment in...
at the end of the 20th century.