Bill Clinton: “Croatia April 3, 1996 Thank you, Dr. Good. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President and the First Lady and the members…”

“Croatia April 3, 1996 Thank you, Dr. Good. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President and the First Lady and the members of the Cabinet and I wanted to come here to be with the employees of the Commerce Department at this very difficult hour. Hillary and I have just come from Ron Brown's home, visiting with Alma and Michael and their family and friends who are there. And we wanted to come and spend a few moments with you. As all of you know, the plane carrying Secretary Brown and his delegation, including a number of your colleagues, business leaders, and members of the United States military, went down today near Dubrovnik, Croatia. We do not know for sure what happened there. But I wanted to come here today, as it is almost Passover for American Jews and I know a lot of you will want to be leaving soon, just to have the chance to say a few words to you. The first thing I want to say is, before I left I asked Alma, I said, ``Alma, what do you want me to say when I go to the Commerce Department?'' She said, ``Tell them Ron was proud of them, that he liked them, that he believed in them, and that he fought for the Commerce Department, and tell them that you're going to do that now,'' which I thought was an incredible thing. I've known Ron Brown a long time. I was always amazed at the way he was continually reaching out trying to bridge the differences between people, always trying to get the best out of people, always believing that we could do more than we have done.…”