On the recordMarch 7, 1994
Let me answer the question and make two points, one positive, the other not so positive. You ask, is it possible that we will recreate the cold war. In one respect, it is unlikely for sure, and that is the nuclear respect. That is, you know, yesterday the first nuclear warheads went across the border from Ukraine into Russia, as Ukraine continues its commitment to become a nonnuclear state. Kazakhstan has done the same. Belarus has done the same. We and the Russians have negotiated two major nuclear reduction treaties, and we are not pointing our weapons at one another. I think it is unlikely that that will be reversed. You never can say ``never,'' but I think it is unlikely. So the prospect of total destruction of two great civilizations arising out of a conflict which triggers nuclear war I think is very remote now, thanks in no small measure to this man and what he did. Now, the second thing is, how likely is it that out of frustration with the pace and the pain of economic and political reform in Russia, the Russian people will turn to leaders who will say the best way to go for the future is to find greatness the way we found it in the past, by the reimposition of some sort of empire, that if we had an empire we would be viewed as a greater nation and we would be a richer nation, and your life would be better? Anyone would have to say that given how many people are saying that in Russia, that is somewhat more likely. All I can say is that we have to--as Chairman Shevardnadze said, that is a question the Russian people will have to answer for themselves. My job is to try to do what I can to demonstrate that it is in the interests of the Russian people to define themselves as a nation and to define their greatness in terms that will be appropriate to the 21st century, not to the 19th century and the early 20th century. And that is the best I can do, in my great hope. Mark [Mark Halperin, ABC News]. Whitewater Investigation
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