Bill Clinton: “Well, I would say two things. First of all, it was well before the election that the NATO allies in Europe most closely…”

“Well, I would say two things. First of all, it was well before the election that the NATO allies in Europe most closely concerned with this came to us and said, we do not believe that the civilian and political and economic functions have developed to the point where there can be no security presence in Bosnia, even though IFOR has done everything it was asked to do. And I said that I would consider American participation if there were a clear mission with an achievable goal. And that was clear before the election. But more importantly, I would say that the NATO ministers met and made their recommendation to me just last week. We needed some time to study it. I had a meeting last evening, quite an extensive one, with General Shalikashvili making the military case and with Secretary Christopher and Secretary Perry. And the whole national security team met with the Vice President and me. We have done this in a timely fashion following the NATO timetable. The most important thing the American people need to know is that mission succeeded; it did do what it was supposed to do in 12 months. But we, frankly--when I say ``we,'' I mean all the people involved in NATO--believed that we could make more economic and political progress than we were able to make. So, we believe there should be a new but much more limited mission simply to maintain the security that has been established and to maintain the conditions in which the political and economic progress can be made.”