Bill Clinton: “Last week, at the Summit of the Americas in Santiago, I saw again the profound change in the very character of the…”

“Last week, at the Summit of the Americas in Santiago, I saw again the profound change in the very character of the relationships between the United States and our neighbors to the south and the start of a true partnership based on mutual respect, mutual trust, and mutual reward. Two quiet revolutions were the catalysts for this change. The first, of course, was the quiet revolution of democracy and open markets in the Americas. The second quiet revolution was Mack McLarty, our Special Envoy to Latin America, who helped all of us to realize that the Americas must become a cornerstone of our prosperity and security for the 21st century. Mack has made over 40 trips to the Americas since he became my Special Envoy. He has earned the trust and respect, the friendship and affection of leaders from the Caribbean to Central America, from Canada to South America, who value his extraordinary combination of integrity and intellect, ability and civility. He helped to change the way we see Latin America, and just as important, he's helped to change the way Latin America sees us. Earlier this week, Mack told me of his desire to leave this administration at the end of June to return to his private life, to spend more time with Donna Kay, and with their sons, Mark and Franklin. It has been a day I hoped would never come, so I accept his decision with regret but eternal gratitude. As most of you know, Mack and I have been good friends virtually all of our lives. We've taken a lot of ribbing about Miss Mary's kindergarten, but she must have done something right. [Laughter] Hillary and I have been especially grateful to have Mack and Donna as friends for a long, long time, and especially in our lives these past 5\1/2\ years. Mack represents to me everything that is good and decent in public service; honesty and civility, fidelity and kindness aren't just words to him, they're a way of life. Just after I was elected President, I asked Mack to leave a long and varied and highly successful business career to be the White House Chief of Staff. It was a daunting task for people who were new to Washington. We had new ideas and new energy. We had all kinds of ideas about the new direction we wanted to take our country in, but we were also new to the strange and often arcane ways of this city. As Erskine Bowles has often said to me, from his own experience, it's a whole lot harder to start up an enterprise than it is to take it over and tune it up. Mack was there at the beginning. And as Bob Rubin has said so often, and I know he would want me to say on his behalf today, it was Mack that established a culture, in our White House and administration, of teamwork and decency which has continued throughout the years, and has been responsible for much of the success that we have enjoyed. During Mack's tenure, we launched policies that helped to turn our country around, to bring our people together, to make our Government work again. Our party had been out of office for 12 years. Beginning with Mack's steady hand as we chose our first Cabinet, he helped to put in place a dramatic change in direction for our Nation. He organized our forces at the White House and was a driving force on Capitol Hill toward the passage of our economic plan that has helped to bring such unparalleled prosperity. It sparked a boom in investment; cut the deficit over 90 percent before the Balanced Budget Act was passed; invested in education and health care, in the environment, in science, and space; cut taxes on small businesses and 15 million people; and led to the creation of 15 million jobs. He helped to secure the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which over 12 million Americans have used when a baby is born or someone in their family is sick. He set the stage for the crime bill, continued our work that we began in Arkansas on education reform, helped us to fight and win major victories to open markets in this hemisphere and around the world through NAFTA and GATT. After he became my counselor, I asked him to tackle complex and important missions--from his work with the Vice President to make the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta a success, to his efforts in the Gulf, to secure support for the Dayton Peace accord in Bosnia, to reaching out to the business community and other key constituencies, and to his truly historic service as Special Envoy to the Americas. He has pursued these many missions with grace and decency and good humor, earning the admiration and trust of a pretty disparate group of people, from Dick Gephardt to Trent Lott, from Tom Donohue at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to John Sweeney at the AFL-CIO, from Jesse Jackson to Ross Perot. Now, this does not surprise me, because as long as I've known him, he's always been well liked and well respected by everybody. And, frankly, I still resent it. [Laughter] Let me say to Mack and to Donna and to their fine sons, thank you for serving America. To his family, I thank them for lending Mack to me for a little while. For a long time now, we have been friends; now we know we are colleagues; now we know what it's like to fight and lose and win again on behalf of the American people. It has been a wonderful experience. And again, I say that Mack McLarty is a genuinely patriotic public servant in the greatest American tradition. And as is my commitment, I promised him that for once, he can have the last word. Mr. McLarty. [At this point, Mr. McLarty made brief remarks.]”