George H.W. Bush: “Well, I don't think it has anything to do with the replacement of NATO. I don't believe that. I believe that the United…”

“Well, I don't think it has anything to do with the replacement of NATO. I don't believe that. I believe that the United Nations and individual European countries have made strong efforts to bring about peace. We started by backing Cyrus Vance as the negotiator for the United Nations. Lord Carrington, in my view, has tried very, very hard. He started off against enormous odds. He's still engaged. And so I can't fault anybody for the fact that we do not have peace there. We have been, as you know, supportive of the peace efforts but not trying to have taken the lead in the peace process. But I would resist saying I think this shows a failure to utilize NATO earlier on or anything of that nature. We remain committed to NATO. I think it is absolutely in the interest of the United States that a strong American presence be in NATO. As these different organizations are considered, I keep talking to our friends in Europe that NATO should be the prime organization there. And I think most of them, if not all, agree with that. So in this failure to bring tranquility to a troubled land or certainly failure to get in the humanitarian supplies that are necessary, I don't see any diminution of NATO's overall standing--if that was your question; I may have misunderstood it--at all. I salute the French President for what he did. That was not a multilateral approach; that was something that he tried to do on his own. Some supplies are going in there now. I was very pleased to note, of all things, a private American venture went in there. The Americares, which is a wonderfully humane organization, had a plane land there at 9:05 this morning, or maybe it was 9:05 their time. But nevertheless, some supplies are getting in there. The U.S. role has been to say, look, we want to help with the assistance, on a humanitarian basis. And that's the role we're in. We are not in a forward-leaning role as terms of saying our objectives is to bring lasting peace to this troubled land. That's what I'd like to see happen. But I think the immediate goal should be relief effort to the people that are suffering. And the environment one time looks benign, and then it looks a little more hazardous. So we've got to thread through it, and we'll do our part.”