-
https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/files/original/4f4c6176ecb1818f4f449b5bda70b3b4.pdf
3c8f2fb512495cbd1b11a602bc4c859c
PDF Text
Text
Case Number: 2008-0703-F
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the Clinton Presidential
Library Staff.
Folder Title:
America Council [ 1]
·-
Staff Office-Individual:
Speechwriting-Rosshirt, Thomas
--
Original OA/ID Number:
4020
Row:
Section: · Shelf:
Position:
Stack:
48
6
3
v
8
.
�.........
.•.t
;. '
.·..
··;f·
..
'
~
.....
....
'
-~··· '·
,+
.;
.,·
1-,
'J •
.•····
- -~
;-..
:.···
..
....
'"
~.
• / '·"· •.•'.n·..
.. ;
.
~
- "!
•
., ,.
'·
•·'''
'.•'
-.:.\ .-,.:
'...,.,...
..
'·"'
;
•
.,
~.·
,,
·'
.,._-.... ,
•'·'.. .,. .....
'_J:
:·
"".-:
,.,
.. ,
.'
'
" r
;;
,;~
· ..
.
··
\
,,
.~
·'
..... ·
,,.
.....
·:..··
,•
·'
~
•
;,.~
~
t
1
,
;:·_:
',
:··~...
•
~-
... ·
. '
~ ,'
.
"t
'"• •
--~~.-
.-1-.
'.,• ., ·.•t.··
'
..;
.. !,"":.
_.·..,~
..;,..,
....
,_,;·
.·.·
'-
,..~_
... '
0f '
·. ·
··~-
......
/;
-· ...
. ,.
•. i'·
I
'·
'
· .:.
.
-..:
.,·.··
'
~•
"'·
.
','!
',··"
~
~
';-'
..'·
.,
'
; ,•'
~
..,
·
' ~
''
..
'
J"'
.-\ '" -~
'· ..
w_~·-
·,
•
.
'
,.
·.''
~
r
. .._
~
,·,.•'
..._,-:
.. :
.· /
•,'.
··;;-
..
'
~
'•
.,
I
.,,,.
.,
.... ~,'>
·.··
. ·'
,_"c:;
..•
. .....,_
'·..
':<"
..
~
~'.
'·
"
-.
''\.
'"··
.,.
:..·'
'
''
'
~.
',·
. ·.
.·.
':.'
,·"v
"1
I
'(.
I
. ·i.:
'I
....:>
'.·
.....
. "
•;
o'''
<-~I •
.
•:
.' ~-
.,
::
' ..
.t:
·~··
'·,
-~
!
~
'
~
"·
i
..
.. ,
·,
.·•
,,
�·~
\
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the :free exercise ,thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the'press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for
a redress of grievances.
�I
I
, Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution ·
Page 1 of 11
1
I
National Archives and Records Administration
Constitution Page
A More Perfect Union:
The Creation of the U . S. Constitution ·
An Introduction
May 25, 1787, Freshly spread dirt covered the cobblestone street in front of the Pennsylvania State
House, protecting the men inside from the sound of passing carriages and carts. Guards stood at the
entrances to ensure that the curious were kept ilt a distance. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, the
"financier" of the Revolution, opened the proceedings with a nomination--Gen. George Washington
for the presidency of the Constitutional Convention. The vote was unanimous. With characteristic
ceremonial modesty,. the general expressed his embarrassment at his lack of qualifications to preside
over such an august body and apologized for any errors into which he might fall in the course of its
deliberations.
To many ofthose·assembled, especially to the small, boyish-looking, 36-year-old delegate from
Virginia, James Madison, the general's mere presence boded well for the convention, for the
illustrious\Wasl}ing~oh gave to the gathering an air of importance and legitimacy But his decision to
attend the convention had been an agonizing one. The Father of the Country had almostremained at
~~-
.
Suffering from rheumatism, despondent over the loss of a bro.ther, absorbed in the management of
Mount Vernon, and doubting that the convention would accomplish very much or that many men of
stature would attend, Washington delayed accepting the invitation to attend for several months. Tom
between the hazards of lending his reputation to a gathering perhaps doomed to failure and the chance
that the public would view his reluctance to attend with a critical eye, the general finally agreed to
make the trip. James Madison was pleased.
General George Washington was
president of the Philadelphia convention.
•,
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�• Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 2 of 11
The Articles of Confederation
The deterinined Madison had for several years insatiably studied history and political theory
searching for a solution to the political and economic dilemmas he saw plaguing America. The
Virginian's labors convinced him of the futility and weakness of confederacies of independent states.
America's own government under the Articles ofConfederation, Madison was convinced, had to be
replaced. In force since 1781, established as a "league of friendship" and a constitution for the 13
· sovereign and independent states after the Revolution, the articles seemed. to Madison woefully
inadequate. With the states retaining considerable power, the central government, he believed, had
insufficient power to regulate commerce. It could not tax and was generally impotent in setting
commercial policy It could not effectively support a war effort. It had little power to settle quarrels
betw~en states. Saddled with this weak government, the states were on the brink of economic
disaster. The evidence was overwhelming. Co:ngress was attempting to function with a depleted
treasury; paper money was flooding the country, creating extraordinary inflation--a pound of tea in
some areas could be purchased for a tidy $100; and the depressed condition of business was taking its
toll on many small farmers. Some of them were being thrown in jail for debt, and numerous farms
. were being confiscated and sold for taxes.
In 1786 some of the farmers had fought back. Led by Daniel Shays, a former captain in the
Continental army, a group of armed men, sporting evergreen twigs in their hats, prevented the circuit
court from sitting at Northampton, MA, and threatened to seize muskets stored in the arsenal at
Springfield. Although the insurrection was put down by state troops, the incident confirmed the fears
of many wealthy men that anarchy was just around the corner. Embellished day after day in the press,
the uprising made upper-class Americans shudder as they imagined hordes of vicious outlaws
descending upon innocent citizen,s. From his idyllic Mount Vernon setting, Washington wrote to
Madison: "Wisdom and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from
the impending storm."
Madison thought he had the answer. He wanted a strong central government to provide order and
stability. "Let it be tri~d then," he wrote, "whether any middle ground can be taken which will at once
support a due supremacy ofthe natiopal authority," while maintaining state power only when
"subordinately useful." The resolute Virginian looked to the Constitutional Convention to forge a
new government in this mold.
The convention had its specific origins in a proposal offered by Madison and John Tyler in the
Virginia assembly that the Continental Congress be given power to regulate commerce throughout
the Confederation. Through their efforts in the assembly a plan was devised inviting the several states
to attend a convention at Annapolis, MD, in September 1786 to discuss commercial problems.
Madison and a young la\vyer from New York named Alexander Hamilton issued a report on the
meeting in Annapolis, calling upon Congress to summon delegates of all of the states to meet for the
purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. Although the report was widely viewed as a
usurpation of congressional authority, the Congress did issue a formal call to the states for a
convention. To Madison it represented the supreme chance to reverse the_ country's trend. And as the
delegations gathered in Philadelphia, its importance was not lost to others.-The squire of Gunston
Hall, George Mason, wrote to his son, "The Eyes of the United States are turned upon this Assembly
· and their Expectations raised to avery anxious Degree. May God Grant that we-may be able to
gratify them, by establishing a wise and just Government."
The Delegates
Seventy-four delegates were appointed to the convention, of which 55 actually attended sessions.
Rhode Island was the only state that refused to send delegates. Dominated by men wedded to paper
currency, low taxes, and popular government, Rhode Island's leaders refused to participate in what
they saw as a conspiracy to overthrow the e:stablished government. Other Americans also had their
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitl;ltionlconhist.html
05/02/2000
�, Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 3 of 11
suspicions. Patrick Henry, of the flowing red Glasgow cloak and the magnetic oratory, refused to
attend, declaring he "smelt a rat." He suspected, correctly, that Madison had in mind the creation of a
powerful central government and the subversion of the author.ity of the state legislatures. Henry along
with many other political leaders, believed that the state governments offered the chief protection for
personal liberties. He was determined not to ler1d a hand to any proceeding that seemed to pose a
threat to that protection.
·
With Henry absent, with such towering figures as Jefferson and Adams abroad on foreign missions,
and with John Jay in New York at the Foreign Office, the convention was without some ofthe
country's major political leaders. It was, nevertheless, an impressive assemblage. In addition to ·
. Madison and Washington, there were Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania--crippled by gout, the 81year-old Franklin was a man of many dimensions printer, storekeeper, publisher, scientist, public
official, philosopher, diplomat, and ladies' mart; James Wilson of Pennsylvania--a distinguished
lawyer with a penchant for ill-advised land-jobbing schemes, which would force him late in life to
flee from state to state avoiding prosecution for debt, the Scotsman brought a profound mind steeped
in constitutional theory and law; Alexander Hamilton ofNew York--a brilliant, ambitious former
aide-de-camp and secretary to Washington dming the Revolution who had, after his marriage into the
Schuyler family ofNew York, become a powerful political figme; George Mason of Virginia--the
author of the Virginia Bill of Rights whom Jefferson later called "theCate of his country without the
avarice of the Roman"; John Dickinson ofDelaware:--the quiet, reserved author of the "Farmers'
Letters" and chairman ofthe congressional committee that framed the articles;.and Gouverneur
Morris of Pennsylvania-- well versed in ~rench literature and language, with a flair and bravado to
· match his keen intellect, who had helped draft the New York State-Constitution and had worked with
Robert Morris in the Finance Office.
There were others who played major roles - Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut; Edmund Randolph of
Virginia; William Paterson of New Jersey; John Rutledge of South Carolina; Elbridge Gerry of
Massachusetts; Roger Sherman of Connecticut; Luther Martin of Maryland; and the Pinckneys,
Charles and Charles Cotesworth, of South Carolina. Franklin was the oldest member and Jonathan
Dayton, the 27-year-old delegate from New Jersey was the youngest: The average age was 42. Most
of the delegates had studied law, had served in colonial or state legislatmes, or had been in the
Congress. Well versed in philosophical theories of government advanced by such philosophers as
James Harrington, John Locke, and Montesquieu, profiting from experience gained in state politics,
the delegates composed an exceptional body, one that left a remarkably learned record of debate.
Fortunately we have a rel'atively complete re1::ord of the proceedings, thanks to the indefatigable
James Madison. Day ·after day, the Virginian sat in front of the presiding officer, compiling notes of
the debates, not missing a s.ingle day or a single major speech. He later remarked that his selfconfinement in the. hall, which was often oppressively hot in ·the Philadelphia summer, almost killed
him.
The sessions ofthe convention were held in secret--no reporters or visitors were permitted. Although
many of the natmally loquacious members were prodded in the pubs and on the streets, most
remained surprisingly discreet. To those suspicious of the convention, the curtain of secrecy only
served to confirm their anxieties. Luther Marlin of Maryland later charged that the conspiracy in
Philadelphia needed a quiet breeding ground. Thomas Jefferson wrote John Adams from Paris, "I am
sorry they began their deliberations by so abominable a precedent as that of tying up the tongues of
their members."
The Virginia Plan
On Tuesday morning, May 29, Edmund Randolph, the tall, 34-year- old governor of Virginia, opened,
the debate with a long speech decrying the ,evils that had befallen the country under the Articles of
Confederation and stressing the need for .cr<eating a strong national government Randolph then
outlined a broad plan that he and his Virginia compatriots had, through long sessions at the Indian
Queen tayern, put together in the days preceding the convention. James Madison had such a plan on
http://www.nara~gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�, Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 4 of 11
his mind for years. The proposed government had three branches--legislative, executive, and judicial-each branch structured to check ~he other. Highly centralized, the government would have_veto
power over laws enacted by state legislatures. The plan, Randolph confessed, "meant a strong
consolidated union in which the idea of states should be nearly annihilated." This was, indeed, the rat
so offensive to Patrick Henry.
The introduction of the so-called Virginia Plan at the beginning of the convention was a tactical coup.
The Virginians had forced the debate into their own frame of reference and in their own terms.
For 10 days the members of the convention discussed the sweeping and, to many delegates, startling
Virginia res()lutions. The critical issue, described succinctly by Gouverneur Morris on May 30, was
the distinction between a federation and a national government, the "former being a mere compact
resting on the good faith of the parties; the latter having a compleat and compulsive operation."
Morris favdred the latter, a "supreme power" capable of exercising necessary authority not merely a
shadow government, fragmented and hopelessly ineffective.
The New Jersey Plan
This nationalist position revolted many delegates who cringed at the vision of a central government
swallowing state sovereignty. On June 13 dele:gates from smaller states rallied around proposals
offered by New Jersey delegate William Paterson. Railing against efforts to throw the states into
"hotchpot," Paterson proposed a "union of the States merely federal." The "New Jersey resolutions"
called only for a revision of the articles to enable the Congress more easily to raise revenues and
regulate commerce. It also provided that acts of Congress and ratified treaties be "the supreme law of
the States."
·
.
.
'
\
For 3 days'the convention debated Paterson's plan, finally voting for rejection. With the defeat of the
New Jersey resolutions, the convention was moving toward creation of a new government, much to
the dismay of many small-state delegates. The nationalists, led by Madison, appeared to have the
proceedings in their grip. In addition, they were able to persuade the members that any new
constitution should be ratified through conventions of the people and not by the Congress and the
state legislatures- -another tactical coup. Madison and his allies believed that the constitution they
had in mind would likely be scuttled in the legislatures, where many state political leaders stood to
lose power. The nationalists wanted to bring the issue before "the people," where ratification was
more likely.
Hamilton's Plan
On June ~ 8 Alexander Hamilton presented his own ideal plan of government. Erudite and polished,
the speech, nevertheless, failed to win a following. It went too fat. Calling the British government
"the best in the world," Hamilton proposed a model strikingly similar an executive to serve during
good beh~vior or life with veto power over all laws; a senate with members serving during good
behavior; the legislature to have power to pass "all laws whatsoever." Hamilton later wrote to
Washington that the people were now willing to accept "something not very remote from that which
they have lately quitted." What the people had "lately quitted," of course, was monarchy. Some
members of the convention fully expected the country to tum in this direction. Hugh Williamson of
North Carolina, a wealthy physician, declared that it was "pretty certain ... that we should at some
time or other have a king." Newspaper accounts appeared in the summer of 1787 alleging that a plot
was under way to invite the second son of George III, Frederick, Duke of York, the secular bishop of
Osnaburgh in Prussia, to become "king of the United States."
Alexander Hamilton on June 18 called the British government
in the world" and proposed a model strikingly similar.
New Yorker, however, later became one of the most ardent
spol~esmen for the new Constitution_
http://www.nara.govI exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�· Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 5 of 11
Strongly militating against any serious attempt to establish monarchy was the enmity so prevalent in
the revolutionary period toward royalty and the: privileged classes. Some state constitutions had .even
prohibited titles of nobility. In the same year as the Philadelphia convention, Royall Tyler, a
_revolutionary war veteran, in his play The (:ontract, gave his own jaundiced view of the upper
classes:
Exult each patriot heart! this night is shewn
A piece, which we may fairly call our own;
Where the proud titles of"My Lord!" "Your Grace!"
To humble Mr. and plain Sir give place.
Most delegates were well aware that there were too many Royall Tylers in the country, with too
many memories of British rule and too many ties to a recent bloody war, to accept a king. As the
debate moved into the specifics of the new government, Alexander Hamilton and others of his
persuasion would have to accept something less.
·
By the end of June, debate between the large :md small states over the issue of representation in the
first chamber of the legislature. was becoming increasingly acrimonious. Delegates from Virginia and
other large states demanded that voting in Congress be accordip.g to population; representatives of
smaller states insisted upon the equality they had enjoyed under the articles. With the oratory
degenerating into threats and accusations, Benjamin Franklin appealed for daily prayers. Dressed in
his customary gray homespun, the aged philosopher pleaded that "the Father of lights ... illuminate
our understandings." Franklin's appeal for prayers was never fulfilled; the convention, as Hugh
Williamson noted, had no funds to pay a preacher.
On June 29 the delegates from the small states lost the first battle. The convention approved a
resolution establishing population as the basis for representation in the House of Representatives,
thus favoring the larger states. On a subsequent small-state proposal that the states have equal
representation in the Senate, the vote resulted in a tie. With large-state delegates unwilling to
compromise on this issue, one member thought that the convention "was on the verge of dissolution,
scarce held together by the strength of an hair."
By July 10 George Washington was so frustrated over the deadlock that he bemoaned "having had
any agency" in the proceedings and called the opponents of a strong central government "narrow
minded politicians ... under the influence oflocal views." Luther Martin of Maryland, perhaps one
whom Washington saw as "narrow minded," thought otherwise. A tiger in debate, not content merely
to parry an opponent's argument but determined to bludgeon it into eternal rest, Martin had become
perhaps the small states' most effective, if irascible, orator. The Marylander leaped eagerly into the
battle on the representation issue declaring, "The States have a right to an equality of representation.
This is secured to us by our present articles of confederation; we are in possession of this privilege."
The Great Compromise
Also crowding into this complicated and divisive discussion over representation was the North-South
division over the method by which slaves were to be counted for purposes of taxation and
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 6 of 11
representation. On July 12 Oliver Ellsworth proposed that representation for the lower house be based
on the number of free persons and three-fifths of" all other persons," a euphemism for slaves. In the
following week the members finally compromised, agreeing that direct taxation be according to
representation and that the representation of the lower house be based on the white.inhabitants and
three-fifths of the "other people." With this compromise andwith the growing realization that such
compromise was necessary to avoid a complete breakdown of the convention, the members then
approved Senate equality. Roger Sherman had remarked that it was the wish of the delegates "that
some general government should be established." With the crisis ove.r representation now settled, it
·
. began to look again as if this wish might be fulfilled.
For the next few days the air in the City of Brotherly Love, although insufferably muggy and
swarming with blue-bottle flies, had the clean scent of conciliation. In this period of welcome calm,
the members decided to appoint a Committee of Detail to draw up a draft .constitution. The
convention would now at last have something on paper. As Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts,
John Rutledge, Edmund Randolph, James Wilson, and Oliver Ellsworth went to work, the other
delegates voted themselves a much needed 10·-day vacation.
During the adjournment, Gouverneur Morris and George Washington rode out along a creek that ran
through land that had been part of the Valley Forge encampment 10 years earlier. While Morris cast
for trout, Washington pensively looked over the now lush ground where his freezing troops had
suffered, at a time when it had seemed as if the American Revolution had reached its end. The
country had come a long way.
·
The First Draft
· On Monday August 6, 1787, the convention accepted the first draft of the Constitution. Here was the
article-by-artickmodel from which the final document would result some 5 weeks later. As the
members began to consider the various sections, the willingness to compromise ·ofthe previous days
quickly evaporated. The most serious controversy erupted over the question of regulation of
commerce. The southern states, exporters of raw materials, rice, indigo, and tobayco, were fearful that
a New England-dominated Congress might, through export taxes, severely damage the South's
economic ljfe. C. C. Pinckney declared that if Congress had the power to regulate trade, the southern
states would be "nothing more than overseers for the Northern States."
On August 21 the debate over the issue of commerce became very closely linked to another explosive
issue--slavery. When. Martin of Maryland proposed a tax on slave importation, the convention was
thrust into a strident discussion of the institu1eion of slavery and its moral and economic relationship
to the new government. Rutledge of South Carolina, asserting that slavery had nothing at all to do
with morality, declared, "Interest alone is the~ governing principle with nations." Sherman of
Connecticut was for dropping the tender issue altogether before it jeopardized the convention. Mason
of Virginia expressed concern over unlimited importation of slaves but later indicated that he also
favored federal protection ofslave property already held. This nagging issue of possible federal
intervention in slave traffic, which Sherman and others feared could irrevocably·split northern and
southern delegates, was settled]Jy, in Mason's words, "a bargain." Mason later wrote that delegates
from South Carolina and Georgia, who most f~ared federal meddling in the slave trade, made a deal
with delegates from the New England states. In exchange for the New Englanders' support for
continuing slave importation for 20 years,.the.southerners accepted a clause that required only a
simple majority vote on: navigation laws, ac:rippling blow to southern economic interests.
The bargain was also a crippling blow to those working to abolish slavery. Congregationalist minister
and abolitionist Samuel Hopkins of Connecticut charged that the convention had sold out: "How does
it appear ... that these States, who have been fighting for liberty and consider themselves as the .
highest and most noble example of zeal for it, cannot agree in any political Constitution, unless it
indulge and authorize them to enslave their fellow men ... Ah! these unclean spirits, like frogs, they,
like the Furies of the poets are spreading discord, and exciting men to contention and war." Hopkins
(
.
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
.
05/02/2000
�· Article: AMore Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 7 of 11
On August 31 a we
eorge Ma
ho had 3 months earlier written so expectantly to his son
about the "great Business now e ore us," bitterly exclaimed that he "would sooner chop off his right
hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands." Mason despaired that the convention was
rushing to saddle the country with an ill-advised, potentially ruinous central authority He was '
concerned that a "bill of rights," ensuring individual liberties, had not been made part of the '
"Con~1ltution. Mason called for a new conventiOn to reconsider the whole questwn of the formation of
-~ent. Although Mason's motion was overwhelmingly voted down, opponents of the·
Constitution did not aba11don the idea of a new convention. It was futilely suggested again and again
for over 2 years.
One of the last major unresolved problems was the method of electing the executive. A number of
proposals, including direct election by the people, by state legislatures, by state governors, and by the
national legislature, were considered. The result was the electoral college, a master stroke of
compromise, quaint and curious but politically expedient. The large states got proportional strength
in the number of delegates, the state legislatures got the right of selecting delegates, and the House
the right to choose the president in the event no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
Mason later predicted that the House would probably·choose the president 19 times out of20.
In the early days of September, with the exhausted delegates anxious to return home, compromise
came easily. On September 8 the convention was ready to tum the Constitution over to a Committee
of Style and Arrangement. Gouverneur Morris was the chief architect. Years later,he wrote to
Timothy Pickering: "That Instrument was written by the Fingers which wrote this letter." The
Constitution was presented to the convention oh September 12, and the delegates methodically began
to consider each section. Although close votes followed on several articles, it was clear. that the
grueling work of the convention in the historic summer of 1787 was reaching its end.
Before the final vote on the Constitution on September 15, Edmund Randolph proposed that
amendments be made by the state conventions and then turned over to another general convention for
consideration. He was joined by G~orge Mason and Elbridge Gerry. The three lonely allies were
soundly rebuffed. Late in the afternoon the roll of the states was called on the Constitution, and from
every delegation the word was "Aye."
. On September 17 the members met for the last time, and the venerable Franklin had written a speech
that was delivered by his colleague James Wilson. Appealing for unity behind the. Constitution,
Franklin declared, "I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that
our councils are confounded like those of the builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of
separation, only to meet hereafter for the ·purpose of cutting one another's throats." With Mason,
Gerry, and Randolph withstanding appeals to attach their signatures, the other delegates in the hall
formally signed the Constitution, and the convention adjourned at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Weary from weeks of intense pressure but generally satisfied with their work, the delegates shared a
farewell dinner at City Tavern. Two blocks away on Market Street, printers John Dunlap and David
Claypoole worked into the night on the final imprint of the six-page Constitution, copies of which
would leave Philadelphia on the morning stage. The debate over the nation's form of government was
now set for the larger arena.
As the members of the convention returned home in the following days, Alexander Hamilton
privately assessed the chances of the Constitution for ratification. In its favor were the support of
Washington, commercial interests, men of property, creditors, and the belief among many Americans
that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate. Against it were the opposition of a few influential
men in the conventimi and state politicians fearful of losing power, the general revulsion against ·,
taxation, the suspicion that a centralized government would be insensitive to local interests, and the
fear among debtors that a new government would "restrain the means of cheating Creditors."
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 8 ofll
The Federaiists and the Anti-Federalists
Because of its size, wealth, and influence and because it was the first state to call a ratifying
convention, Pennsylvania was the focus of national attention. The positions ofthe Federalists, those
who supported the Constitution, and the anti..:Federalists, those who opposed it, were printed and
reprinted by scores of newspapers across the country; And passions in the state were most warm.
When the Federalist-dominated Pennsylvania assembly lacked a quorum on September 29 to call a
state ratifying convention, a Philadelphia mob, in order to provide the necessary numbers, dragged
two anti-Federalist members from their lodgings through the streets to the State House where the
bedraggled representatives were forced to stay while the assembly voted. It was a curious example of
participatory democracy.
·
On October 5 anti-Federalist Samuel Bryan published the first of his "Centinel" essays in
Philadelphia's Independent Gazetteer. Republished in newspapers in various states, the essays
assailed the sweeping power of the central government, the usurpation of state sovereignty, and the
absence of a bill of rights guaranteeing individual liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom of
religion. "The United States are to be melted down," Bryan declared, into a despotic empire
dominated by "well-born" aristocrats. Bryan was echoing the fear of many anti-Federalists that the
new government would become orie controlled by the wealthy established families and the culturally
refined. The common working people, Bryan believed, were in danger of being subjugated to the will
of an all-powerful authority remote and inaccessible to the people. It was this kind of authority, he
believed, that Americans had fought a war against only a few years earlier.
The next day James Wilson, delivering a stirring defense of the Constitution to a large crowd
gathered in the yard of the State House, praised the new government as the best "which has ever been
offered to the world." The Scotsman's view prevailed. Led by Wilson, Federalists dominated in the
Pennsylvania convention, carrying-the vote on December 12 by a healthy 46 to 23.
The vote for ratification in Pennsylvania did not end the rancor and bitterness. Franklin declared that
scurrilous articles in the press were giving the impression that Pennsylvania was "peopled by a set of
the most unprincipled, wicked, rascally and quarrelsome scoundrels upon the face of the globe." And
in Carlisle, on December 26, anti-Federalist rioters broke up a Federalist celebration and hung Wilson
and the Federalist chief justice of Pennsylvania, Thomas McKean, in effigy; put the torch to a copy of
the Constitution; and busted a few Federalist heads.
·
1
Tn New York the Constitution was 'under siege in the press by a series of essays signed "Cato."
Mounting a counterattack, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay enlisted help from Madison and, in late
1787, they published the first of a series of essays now known as the Federalist Papers. The 85 ·
essays, most of which were penned by Hamilton himself, probed the weaknesses of the Articles of
Confederation and the need for an energetic national government. Thomas Jefferson later called the
Federalist Papers the "best commentary on the principles of government ever written."
Against this kind of Federalist leadership and determination, the opposition in most states was
disorganized and generally inert. The leading spokesmen were largely state-centered men with
regional and local interests and loyalties. Madison wrote of the Massachusetts anti-Federalists,
"There was not a single character capable of uniting their wills or directing their measures·.... They
had no plan whatever." The anti-Federalists attacked wildly on several fronts: the lack of a bill of
rights, discrimination against southern states in navigation legislation, direct taxation, the loss of state
sovereignty. Many charged that the Constitution represented the work of aristocratic politicians bent
on protecting their own class interests. At the Massachusetts convention one-delegate declared,
"These lawyers, and men of learning and moneyed men, that ... make us poor illiterate people
swallow down the pill ... they will swallow up all us little folks like the great Leviathan; yes, just as
the whale swallowed up Jonah!" Some newspaper articles, presumably written by anti-Federalists,
resorted to fanciful predictions of the horrors that might emerge under the new Constitution pagans
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�. Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 9 of 11
and deists could control the government; the . use of Inquisition-like torture could be instituted as
punishment for federal crimes; even the pope could be ·elected president.
One anti-Federalist argument gave opponents some genuine difficulty--the claim that the territory of
the 13 states was too extensive for a representative government. In a republic embracing a large area,
anti-Federalists argued, government would be impersonal, unrepresentative, dominated by men of
wealth, and oppressive of the poor and working classes. Had not the illustrious Montesquieu hhns.elf
ridiculed the notion that an extensive territory eomposed of varying climates and.people, could be a
single republican state? James Madison, always ready with the Federalist volley, turned the argument
completely around and insisted that the vastness of the country would itself be a strong argument in
favor of a republic. Claiming that a large republic would counterbalance various political interest
groups vying for power, Madison wrote, "The smaller the society the fewer probably will be the
distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more
frequently will a majority be found of the same party and the more easily will they concert and
execute their plans of oppression." Extend the size of the republic, Madison argued, and the country
would be less vulnerable to separate factions within it.
Ratification
By January 9, 1788, five states ofthe nine necessary for ratification had approved the Constitution-D
e
·
ew Jerse
·~~.Connecticut. But thee
· ua ou
e remained
uncertai · ivotal states ch
assachuse~ew York, and Virgini On Febru
with
era ists a reem to recommen
s o amendments amountin to a hi
assachusetts
fafifie y a vote of 187 to 168. he revolutiOnary ea er, John Hancock, elected to preside over tne-----____
c usetts ratifying convention but unable to make up his mind on the Constitution, took to his
bed with a convenient case of gout. Later seduced by the Federalists with visions of the vice
presidency and possibly the presidency, Hancock, whom Madison noted as "an idolater of
popularity," suddenly experienced a miraculous cure and delivered a critical block of votes. Although
Massachusetts was now safely in the Federalist column, the recommendation of a bill of rights was a
significant victory for the anti-Federalists. Six of the remaining states later appended similar
recommendations.
When the New Hampshire convention was adjourned by Federalists who sensed imminent defeat and
Rhode Island on March 24 turned down the Constitution iri a popular referendum by an
overwhelming vote of 10 to 1, Federalist leaders were apprehensive. Looking ahead to the Maryland
convention, Madison wrote to Washington, "The difference between even a postponement and
adoption in Maryland may ... possibly give a fatal advantage to that which opposes the constitution."
Madison had little reason to worry. The final vote on April28 63 for, 11 against. In Baltimore, a huge
parade celebrating the Federalist victory rollt::d. through the downtown streets, highlighted by a 15foot float called "Ship Federalist." The symbolically seaworthy craft was later launched in the waters
.off Baltimore and sailed down the Potomac to Mount Vernon.
·~hen
On July 2, 1788, the Confederation Congress, meeting in New York, received word that a reconvened
New Hampshire ratifying convention had approved the Constitution. With SoutlJ. Carolina's
acceptance of the Constitution in May, New Hampshire thus became the ninth state to ratify. The
Congress appointed a committee "for putting the said Constitution into operation."
In the next 2 months, thanks largely to the efforts of Madison and Hamilton in their own states,.
Virginia and New Yorkboth ratified while adding their own amendments. The margin for the
Federalists in both states, however, was extremely close. Hamilton figured that the majority ofthe
people in New York actually opposed the Constitution, and it is probable that a majority of people in
the entire country opposed it. Only the promise of amendments had ensured a Federalist victory:
The Bill of Rights
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitutionlconhist.html
05/02/2000
�----------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-------------
. Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
/))
Page 10of 11
The call for a bill of rights had been the anti-Federalists' most powerful weapon. Attacking the
proposed Constitution for its vagueness and lack of specific protection against tyranny, PatriCk Henry
asked the Virginia convention, "What can avail your specious, imaginary balances, your rope- .
dancing, chain-rattling, ridiculous ideal checks and contrivances." The anti-Federalists, demanding a
more concise, unequivocal Constitution, one thatlaid out for all to see the right of the people and
limitations of the power of government, claimed that the brevity of the document only revealed its
·
·
inferior nature. Richard Henry Lee despaired at the lack of provisions to rotec "
rights of mankind without whiCh liberty cannot ex1s . . ra mg t e old government for the new
without such a bill of rights, Lee argued, woula be tradmg Scylla for Charybdis.
A bill of rights had been barely mentioned in the Philadelphia convention, most delegates holding
that the fundamental rights of individuals had been secured· in the state constitutions. James Wilson
maintained that a bill of rights was superfluous because all power not expressly delegated to the new
government was reserved to the pe
was e e , wever, that in this argumentthe anti·
Federalists held the upper han
ven Thomas ~~on enerally in favor of the new government,
wrote to Madison that a bill of r
e people are entitled to against every government
-on earth."
By the fall of 1788 Madison had been convinced that not only was a bill of rights necessary to ensure
acceptance of the Constitution but that it would have positive effects. He wrote, on October 17, that
such "fundamental maxims of free Government:" would be "a good ground for an appeal to the sense
of community" against potential oppression and would "counteract the impulses of interest and
passion."
Benjamin Franklin told a French correspondent in 1788 that the formation ofthe new government
had been like a game of dice, with many players of diverse prejudices and interests unable to make
any uncontested moves. Madison wrote to Jefferson that the welding of these clashing interests was
"a task more· difficult than can be well conceived by those who were not concerned in the execution
of it." When the delegates left Philadelphia after the convention, few, if any, were convinced that the
Constitution they had approved outlined the ideal form of government for the country. But late in his
life James Madison ·scrawled out another letter, one never addressed. In it he declar~d that no
government can be perfect, and "that which is the least imperfect is therefore the best government."
The Document Enshrined
The fate of the United States Constitution after its signing on September 17, 1787, can be contrasted
sharply to the travels and physical abuse of America's other great parchment, the Declaration of
Independence. As the Continental Congress, during the years of the revolutionary 'Yar, scurried froni
town to town, the rolled-up Declaration was caiTied along. After the formation of the new ·
government under the Constitution, the one-page Declaration, eminently suited for display purposes,
'graced the walls of various government buildings in Washington, exposing it to prolonged damaging
sunlight. It was also subjected to the work of early calligraphers responding to a demand for
reproductions of the revered document. As any visitor to the National Archives can readily .observe,
the early treatment of the now barely legible Declaration took a disastrous toll. The Constitution, in
excellent physical condition after more than 200 years, has enjoyed a more serene existence. By 1796
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.html
05/02/2000
�?
Article: A More Perfect Union: Creation of the U.S. Constitution
Page 11 of 11
the Constitution was in the custody of the Department of State along with the Declaration and
traveled with the federal government from New York to Philadelphia to Washington. Both
documents were secretly moved to Leesburg, VA, before the imminent attack by the British o.n ·
Washington in 1814. Following the war, the Constitution remained in the State Department while' the
Declaration continued its travels--to the Patent Office Building from 1841 to 1876,to Independence
Hall in Philadelphia during the Centennial celebration, and back to Washington in 1877. On
September 29, 1921, President Warren Harding issued an Executive order transferring the
Constitution and the Declaration to the Library of Congress for preservation and exhibition. The next
. day Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam, acting on authority of Secretary ofState Charles Evans
Hughes, carried the Constitution and the Declaration in a Model-T Ford truck to the library and
placed them in his office safe until an appropriate exhibit area·could be constructed. The documents
were officially put on display at a ceremony in the library on February 28, 1924. On February 20,
1933, at the laying of the cornerstone of the future Natiqnal Archives Building, President Herbert
Hoover remarked, "There will be aggregated here the most sacred documents of our history--the
originals of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States." The two
documents however, were not immediately transferred to the Archives. During World War II both
were moved from the library to Fort Knox for protection and returned to the library in 1944. It was
not until successful negotiations were completed between Librarian of Congress Luther Evans and
Archivist of the United States Wayne Grover that the transfer to the National Archives was finally
accomplished by special.direction of the Joint Congressional Committee on the Library.
On December 13, 1952, the Constitution and the Declaration were placed in helium-filled cases,
enclosed in wooden crates, laid on mattresses in an armored Marine Corps personnel carrier, and
escorted by ceremonial troops, two tanks, and four servicemen carrying submachine guns down
Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues to the National Archives. Two days later, President Harry
Truman declared at a formal ceremony in the Archives Exhibition Hall.
"We are engaged here today in a symbolic act. We are enshrining these documents for
future ages. This magnificent hall has been constructed to exhibit them, and the vault
beneath, that we have built to ·protect them, is as safe from destruction as anything th8:t
the wit of modern man can devise. All this is an honorable effort, based upon reverence
for the great past, and our generation can take just pride in it."
Bibliographic note: Web version based on the Introduction by Roger A. Bruns to A More Perfect Union:
The Creation of the United States Constitution. Washington, DC: Published for the National Archives and
Records Administration by the National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1986. 33 p.
Ordering information
Note: Web version may differ from the printed version .
[ Constitution I Declaration of Independence I Bill of Rights I Charters page.]
National Archives and Records Administration
URL: http :l/www. nara. gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhisi. html
webmaster@nara.gov
·
Last updated: March 26, 1999
. I
http://www .nara. gov/exhall/charters/constitution/conhist.htm1
05/02/2000
�Page 1 of8
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the. Press 'secretary
For Immediate Release
November 10,
~
199~~
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON EMPLOYEES
Harley~Davidson
Plant
York, Pennsylvania
1:00 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT:
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
It's nice to be
in a restrained, laid-back crowd like thi~.
(Laughter and applause.)
The truth is~ it's wonderful to be in a place where _people are happy and
they're not ashamed to be excited and they're proud to go to work every
day.
Thank you very much for-- (applause.)
Thank you,. Jeff Bleustein; thank you, Bobby Ramsey.
Old Bobby kind
of hurt my feelings -- you know, I went up to him and he said, well,
you're not nearly as·tall a~ .I thought you w~re.
(Laughter.)
He said,
when I saw you playing saxophone on Arsenio Hall, I thought you were a
lot taller guy.
(Laughter.) And I said, that's where I got elected
President, I was 6'8" back then.
(Laughter.)
But I still think you did
a good job, Bobby, and I thank you.
(Applause.)'
I want to thank Bill Denell (phonetic).
Thank you, Harry Schmidt.
I enjoyed meeting Willie Davidson today.
(Applause.)
And I thank Torn
Buffenbarger, the President of the International Association of
Machinists, for being here and joining us today.
(Applause. )
I want to thank Mayor Robertson for welcoming me to York, and all
the county commissioners and legislators and others who are here. And I
want to say a special word of appreciation again, Jeffrey, to you, for
making me feel so welcome here and for the nice things you said about
Bill Daley, behind his back.
Usually, when you talk behind sornebody's
back y6u're not saying nice things,
(Laughter;)
So Daley is up here
talking and Jeff is telling me what a good Secretary of Commerce.he is.
And I will say, Secretary Daley, you have been superb and we're grateful
for what you do for the United States.
(Applause. )
Now, you may remember this, some of you,· but after I was nominated
for President, way back in the summer of 1992, Al and Tipper Gore and
Hillary and I got on a bus; and we started this bus tour.· Our very.
first overnight stop was in York, Pennsylvania.
(Applause.)
And I'm
sure none of you were there ~hen we got in. We got in about a quarter
to one, but the crowd was about the size t~at it is today. And I looked
at that crowd-- it was in· the middle of the night, you. know, we'd been
stopped everywhere along the way-- and I decided I'd tak~ a bus tour so
I could go see normal people. We went out to all these little towns.
And then we got to York, it was the middle of the night and there
1
was this huge throng there. And I popped· out and I looked at Hillary, I
said, you know, we rni~ht win this election -- (laughter) -- and we'd
better not mess it up.
(Applause.)
When I was here before, I didn't ge~ to come and visit
Harley-Davidson. And I wish I had, because since then
I had a
beautiful Harley jacket before I carne here, that I got in Milwaukee.
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res!I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999111/,10/15.text.l 05/01/2000
�Page2 of8.
But I ~ave it to a guy who worked for me, because 'he thought he was
going to ride to heaven on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle~ ·(Applause.)
So when he retired, the only thing I could think of to give him that
really reflected the service he had given to our country and to me was
my jacket, which I hated to part with.
But the only gifts that really
count are the ones that you'd like to keep your~elf, I think, sometimes.
So today I got another·one, and I thank you.
I love it.
(Applause.)
You know, Bill Daley was talking about being over in the United
Arab Emirates and how they were dying to have more motorcycles and other
paraphernalia to sell. And r told Jeff when he mentioned it, one of the
great treasures of being the President is having the opportunity to meet
people around the world you would never meet and make friends with them.
A person who became a particular personal friend of mine, and of my
wife's, was the late King Hussein of Jordan. And some of you may know,
he ·was a very satisfied Harley customer.
When Hussein and his wife, Queen Noor,
years ago, and we became very good friends,
treasure that's still up in the White House
himself and his wif~ in very casual clothes
astride a Harley.
(Applause.)
came to stay with us a few
he gave me a gift that I
today.
It's a picture of
in the Jor-danian desert,
My best Harley story -- I was just recently in Paris on my way to
Sarajevo and· Bosnia to try to settle the· outstanding issues of all the
Balkan wars in Bosnia and Kosovo._ So I stopped in France to have a
meeting with the President of France, and I went to the American
Ambassador's residence in Paris. Now, if you ever saw that house, you'd
want to be Ambassador to France, too.
(Laughter.)
It's a beautiful
placej b~ilt in ~he 1700s -- just takes your breath away to walk in,
these grand gardens and this beautiful marble foyer when you walk in.
In the beautiful marble foyer when you 0alk in now, replete with ~11 the
proper lighting, is a stunning, 1944 Harley-Davidson.
(Laughter and
applause.)
And the way it got there is that when your predecessors were making
motorcycles for the war eff~rt, some of them were sent in packages, to
be assembled to our allies in Europe. And some of them went to
Yugoslavia, where Mr. Tito was fighting the Nazis.
Two of them were
never opened, and the son of the Amer·ican ambassador actually came upon
these 54 year old boxes of unassembled 1944 l;larleys last year. And he
gave one to his daddy. And now, if you ever. go to France, it's-now the
main tourist attraction of the American Embassy, is a 1944 Harley.
It
is so beautiful and I know you'd be proud of it.
(Applause.)
I came here today not just because I wanted to see you, and not
just because I wanted to come back to York to thank the people of this
community and this state for being so good for the last seven·years and
through two elections to me and my wife and.Vice President and Mrs.
Gore.
I came here because I want America to know exactly what you have
done and how.
The recovery of this company since the 1980s has been truly
remarkable. When you were down in the dumps, people were saying
American industry was finished, that we couldn't compete in the global
economy, that the next century would belong to other countries and other
places.
Today, you're not just surviving -- you're flourishing, with
record sales and earnings; and one of the best managed companies in
America, according to Industry Week. According to management and labor,
one of the reasons you're the best-managed company in.America·is that
you have a genuine partnership between labor and management, where all
employees are valuable and expected to make good decisions on their own
for the benefit of the common e~terprise. And I thank you for setting
that example.
I wish every manufacturer in America would model it.
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res!I2R?um:pdi://oma.eop.gov.usl19?9111/10/15.text.l
05/01/2000
�Page 3 of8
(Applause. )
I came here because I knew before I got here -- ~lthoug~ I had
never quite experienced the full force of it until you were shouting and
screaming and having such a good time -- I knew that this. was about more
than making bikes for profit; more than selling attractive leather
jackets. What we see here today is how people feel when they have got a
job that they do well,.that gives them not only a decent income, but a
full measure of dignity and pride.
(Applause. )
· I used to tell pe6ple all the t~ne that politics is about a lot
rr\ore than economics.
But if you get the economics right, people figure
out. how to live ·and shape good lives, and raise their children and· build
strong communities. And if you don't get the economics right, then you
have to deal with a lot of the other values issues -- extraordinary
welfare rates and higher crime rates, and all those other problems.
I want people to see that y9u have, yes, turned a company around.
Yes, you make an exciting produ6t and you sell it all around the world,
but that you do it in the right w~y, a way that makes you proud to come
to work every day.
It puts a spring in your step and a shout in your
voice, and a light in your eyes·.
That is what I want for every American
working family, and I hope that more people will follow your lead so
that more people can stand up and shout every day just for the joy of
going to work and being part of a common enterprise and doing something
they can be profoundly proud of.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for
that ex~mple.
(Applause.)
The second point I want to make is the point that Secretary Daley
has already mentioned.
To really do as well as you can, you have to
sell these wonderful products not only around the country, but around
the world.
And I think that's very important.
In 1973, when the first Harley rolled off the assembly line here,
America exported only 6,300 motorcycles.
By last year, that number had
increased to 66,000.
Today, you're sellin~ about a ~uarter of your
bikes around the world -- from Costa Rica to Korea, from Central Europe
to the Middle East.
The. global market foi motorcycles, and for Harleys,
is exploding.
It's a big part of your future.
And in order for it to be a part of your future and our future,
America has to continue to support expanding trade on fair terms to all,
including Americans.
Now, this is a big issue.
And I want you to just
give me a couple minutes 6f serious time here to talk about it.
When I got elected in 1992, i don't think there's ~ny way in the
world a governor of a small southern state -- in the affectionate terms
that President Bush used then to describe me -- would have been elected
President if we hadn't had economic distress,~social division, political
drift and a government discredited.
You all remember that.
It was
tough in this country; it was tough in this state.
And I had spent 12 years -- at t.hat time, not quite 12, a little
over 10 -- working as governor of my state, trying to figure out how
this economy works; how the education system plays into the economy; how
I could actually get up and go to work every day and create the
conditions and give people the tools to make the life of their dreams.
And I asked the American people, I said, look, give me a chance to put
people back at the center of our politics; to create opportunity for
every responsible citizen; to create a community that every American has
a chance to be a part of.
And give me a chance to put in some new ideas:
I believe we can
grow the economy and protect the environment.
I believe we can move
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/12R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/1111 0/15 .text. I 05/01/2000
�Page 4 of8
people from welfare to work and still allow them to take care of their
children.
I believe we can be tough on crime and still do more to keep
kids out of trouble in the first plac~.
I believe we can do more to
help people succeed at home and at work.
I believe we can have a
trading syste~ that expands trade and still protects legitimate labor
rights and our responsibilities to the environment.
I believe we can
have a community where all of us serve more and help one another reach
our common dreams.
Anyway, I said the center of this has to be an economic strategy,
and mine is .very.simple.
I.want to get rid of the deficit, but I want
to find a way to invest more money in education, in technology, in
training and in research. And I want to expand trade.
To me, it was
simple math:
we have 4 percent of the world's people with 22 percent of
·the world's income.
You don't have to be a genius to figure out,. if you
want to keep 22 percent of the world's income with 4 percent of the
world's people, you've got to sell something to the other 96 percent.
And, yet, I knew people were afraid of that.
They were afraid that
if we opened our borders here, a lot of our lower-wage workers would be
put out of business by people who worked for ~ven less money abroad, and ·
they might not ever get another chance. They were afraid a lot of our
well-paid workers~would not do well, because we'd have markets opened to
our competitors in those areas, but they wouldn't open their mark~ts to
ours.
A lot of people were afraid we would see a big transfer of wealth
to p6or countries, but the money would stay in a few hands and it
wouldn't flow down to the workers there, and it would lead to a
degradation of the environment in ways that could hurt us.
That was
especially an issue along the Rio Grande River when we were working out
the trade agreement with Mexico.
So there was all this fight about.it.
Well, the results of the last seven years are in, and it's not an
argument anymore. We have the longest peacetime expansion in history,
the highest homeownership in history, 19.8 million new jobs, the lowest
unemployment rate in 30 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 30 years, the
lowest poverty rates in ZO years, th~ first back-to-back budget
surpluses in 42 years, and the federal government is the smallest it's
been in 37 years.
The record is in.
(Applause.)
Now, I might add, there's a lot of women in this plant.
Last
month, the female unemployment rate was the same as the overall
unemployment rate, 4.1 percent.
That was the lowest unemployment rate
for women in 4 6 years.
(Applause.). And from 1993 un'til the end of 1997
when the Asian economy collapsed and the Russian economy had such great
difficulty, until that point, 30 percent of this growth came from
exports. And an enormous amount of it came because of improvements and
advances in technology --.not just computers in Silicon Valley, but the
computer programs running all these machines I saw on the plant floor
here today -- a lot of them taking the most dangerous jobs, ~orne of the
jobs that caused people to have long-term injuries away, so that you can
work and make a contribution and make these motorcycles at some less
and wear and tear to yourselves.
~he
Thirty percent of our growth came from exports, until we had
Asian collapse. And they're coming back now; we've worked hard to help
them.
They're coming back now.
Now, in spite of these economic statistics -- I mean, here's why
we'r~ here, ~part from the fact that Bill Daley and I wanted to come
here. And we're glad we got our jacikets, and we really wish we were
leaving with motorcycles.
~ut I have to wait a yea! and a half, you
know?
(Applause.)
I've got to wait a year and·a half.
I couldn't bear
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/12R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/1111 0/15.text.l 05/0112000
�Page 5 of8
I
· ' all the
~tories
out here if I rode around on a motorcycle for a while.
But let me tell ~ou, the reason we're here, to be fair, is that,
ironically, in spite of all. those economic numbers I just recited,
there's actually more division and controversy over whether trade. is. or
isn't good fo~ us today in Washington than thete was in 1993, and in
1994, when we joined the World Trade Organization arid set off this
explosion of economic activity.
And again I say, I think it's because people are afraid that
Americans always get a raw deal.
They see we have a big trade deficit
-- that's because we've got even more money than we produce for.
We buy
things from other countries, but we also sell a lot abroad. We keep
setting records for our exports. And a lot of what we sell abroad
supports higher wages in America.
The average trade-related job pays
almost 20 ~ercent more than a job unrelated to tiade -- like yours do.
You know that.·
So we have to find a way not just for big business leaders aBd
people like me who live in Washington, who -- you know, get a job that
lasts for ~ term of years, regardless. We hava to find ways for people
like you, that get up and go to work every day, and will have a lot of
job security when you're doing well; and people who aren't in unionized
plants, and who may be working for low wages, and who feel more
vulnerable.
We have to find a way to build a consensus in America so
that all Americans understand that if we want to keep growing this
economy, raising wages, creating jobs, we've got to stick with what has
brought us this far.
We've got to keep paying down this debt. We can make America
debt-free in 15 years, for the first time since 1835, if we stay on the
budget plan that I've laid out. And that will be great for you. Why
should you care if we're debt-free? Because if the government is out of
debt, this business can borrow money at lower cost.. And you will have
lower home mortgage rates, you will have lower car payment rates.
If
you send your kids to college, the coliege loans will be lower.
Just
because of the amount we've reduced the d~ficit already, the'av~rage
home mortgage costs the average American working family $2,000 a year
less, and the ayerage car payment is $200 a year less, and the average
college loan is $200 a year less. We ought to keep going until we get
America out of debt for the first time since 1835, so the money will be
there at the lowest possible costs for the American enterprise system to
create jobs and.improve lives. That's important.
The second thing we ought to do is to find a way to continue to
expand trade.
You know, we just had a meeting and I was told, well,
just what you heard here in the speech:
thank you very much for helping
us get into the Japanese market, and we're doing well there, but there
are still some barriers there.
I hear that everywhere.
So next month
in Seattle, we're going to have a chance to make the.global trading
system str6nger -- to tear down more tariffs, to deal with more
non-tariff barriers, to make it clear that if countries want access to
our markets, we have to have access to theirs; but basically, to commit
to expanding trade. Now, that is what is in the interest of Harley
Davidson, and that is what is in the interest of the 21st century
American economy.
So I came here to say, we can have more companies like yours. We
can have more success stories like yours.
This company can have more
employees like you.
But if we're going to do it, we have to find a way
to expand trade.
There's 4 percent of us, we've got 22 percent of the
income, we've got to sell something to the other 96 percent.
It's just
as simple as that.
But. we will never be able to do it unless working
people believe that trade benefits ordinary American families.
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/12R?uin:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/11/10/15.text.l
05/01/2000
�Page 6 of8
You know, the politicians and the CEOs can talk ·until they're blue
in the face.
But we still have elections in t6is country and, in the.
end, you guys run the show. And it's a good thing; that's why we're
still around here after 200 years.
But if we can't convince people like
you that we're right about this trade issue, then we are going to shrink
America's future prospects.
It's as simple as that.
You know, ·I want you Bll to watch Seattle when it rolls around.
Every group in the world with an axe to grind i·s going to Seattle to
demonstrate.
I'll have more demonstrators against me than I've had in
the whole seven years I've been President.
I'm kind of lcioking forward.
to it.
(Laughter.)
I'll tell you why.
I told them all I wanted them
to·come.
I want all the consumer groups to come.
I want all the
environmental· groups to come.
I want everybody who thinks this is a bad
deal to come.
I want eve~ybody to get all this out of their system and
say their peace of mind. And I want us to have a huge debate about
this.
But I'm telling you, I've worked really hard for you the last seven
years to turn this econcimy around and to get it going in ~he right
direction. ·(Applause.)
I've worked hard to make sure other people play
by the rules, not just in York, Pennsylvania, but.in York, England and
in York, 0estern Australia.
And now, as I look ~head to the last year and a couple of months of
my term, I try to think of what things I can still do that will allow
this prosperity to go on and on, and that will embrace people who
haven't yet been affected by it. We still have people in places who
haven't been picked up· by this recovery. And I want this to go on·:
It's already the longest peacetime expansion in history; in February
it'll be the longest economic expansion, including those that embraced
our world 0ars.
But we can keep it going.
But only if we find more
customers and more investment in a non-inflationary way. And there's
only two places to find it.
You've got to. go to 'the places in America
which have had no recovery and to the people who are still on welfare or
otherwise left out, or you've got to sell more stuff overseas.
Therefore, I say to you -- I don't think the trading system is
perfect, by the way.
I have argued until I'm blue in the face, and I
will continue to argue ihat when we make these trade rules, we need to
take the concerns of ordinary citizens into account. We should be
growing the economy not just in America, but everywhere, and still
improving the environment.
Let me tell you, compared to seven years ago, with all these jobs,
in America the air is cleaner, the water is cleaner, the food is safer,
we've set aside more land to protect it for sports people and for
tourists and ~eople that just want to be out in nature, than any
administration in the history of this country, except those of Franklin
and Theodore Roosevelt.
You can improve the economy and improve the ·
environment at the same time.
People ought to have that everywhere.
They ought to have.that security everywhere.
Working people everywhere, even if they can't enjoy the same income
jou do, 6ught to have access to basic labor rights~ We shouldn't be
having child labor in some of these countries prod~cing products to
compete in our markets and exploit children when they ought to be in
school. w~ ought to have basic, decent labor·standards for people
everywhere.
(Applause. )
And I believe -- that's why I'm .glad the demonstrators are coming.
I want us to try to find a way to build a consensus where we can expand
trade and respect the rights of labor and the environment.
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?um:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/11/10/15.text.l
05/01/2000
�Page 7 of8
But let me tell you something, you know this, you think about your
own life.
If we have more trade and it's good for you and it's good for
those countries, don't you think it's more likely that working people
will be better off and their environment will be cleaner? I mean, the
more money you've got, the more you can afford to give workers wages
that are increased and the more you can afford to clean up the
environment.
So I think all these things work together.
In Seattle, I'm going
to ask the trade organization for the very first time to establish a
working group on trade and labor, so we get working people and their
concerns involved in the trade process before all the decisions are
ma~e.
I have 0orked haid to make environment a part of this.
I think
it's important.
But I came here for this simple reason.
This is a great company.
You've got a·great union.
You've found a successful way to compete in
the world.
You represent the future of the American economy.
But if I
cannot con~ince the decision makers in Washington and ordinary people
like you all across America that a key part of the economic success
we've enjoyed in the last seven years and the economic success America
can enjoy in the years ahead requires us to continue to break down
barriers to trade, then in the future, when I'm not around anymore, you
won't have the economic prosperity that I think you deserve;
So I ask you to think about this.
I thank you.for being so quiet
and listening to this.
I wouldn't be for this if I didn't think it was
right for you, if I didn't think it wa.s good for ordinary Americans.
But i ' l l lecive you with this thought:
we live in~ world that is
smaller and smaller, and that is either going to make us more prosperotis
and more secure, or more vulnerable and more insecur~:
If we don't
trade with other people and help them to get involved in· a cycle of
growth with us, and you have more and more people that are poor, with
open borders, you're ~oing to have more drug trafficking, more organized
crime, more political terrorism and more headaches. Aqd everybody
everywhere will be more vulnerable to it.
On the other hand, if we make a living by selling more of our
things overseas and the price of that is to let people sell more of
their things to us, and they do better and their children do better, you
will have more cooperation and a far ntore interesting world for your
children to live in.
I believe the best days of this country are still ahead.
I believe
the life our kids and grandkids are going to have will be truly amazing ..
Within 10 years, children might actually be born with a life expectancy
of 100 years.
Their mothers will take home with them from the hospital
a map of the children's genetic system, which will say, your child has
the following strengths arid the follo;.ring problems, but if you do these
10 things in the child's upbringing you will dramatically reduce the
fact that yo~r little girl will get breast cancer, or your little boy
will develop colon cancer.
It will be an amazing futur~.
But we have to do the big things right.
That's what you do here.
You do the big things right. And you know a lot of little mistakes will
be made.
You know even you aren't perfect.
You know mistakes will be
made, but if you get the big things right, you know it's going to come
out all right.
What I'm trying to do
Washington, and with these.
su~e, as Americans, we get
fair trade? You bet.
Did
--with this new trad~ round in Seattle,
speeches across the country-- is to make
the big things right.
Should we fight for
we get a lot of steel dumped-on us when the
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/12R?urn::pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/11/1 0/15.text.1 05/01/2000
�Page 8 of8
Asian and the Russian economies went down, and was it unfair, and did I
have to push hard to get it out? You bet. Did you deserve trade
protection several years ago when you got it? Absolutely you did.
Do we have to make the system work right? Yes. That's true,
youive got to make the system work right. But let's not lose the big
point: if we want to continue to grow, have high incomes, ·low
unemployment·-- the lowest minority unemployment in the history of the
country, lowest women's unemployment in 46 years, the lowest overall
unemployment in 30 years -- if we want that, if we want a country
growing together, a part of our strategy has got to be to sell more, not
just Harleys, but everything we can possiply sell, around the world.
So I ask you, don't let this trade debate be
politicians and CEOs. You embrace it. ,It's your
children's future. And every company can be like
to embrace the world and say, we are not afraid.
things right.
Thank you, and God bless you.
END
the province of
future, and your
Harley. But we.have
We can get the bi~
(Applause. )
1:30 P.M. E$T
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999111/1 0/15.text.1 05/01/2000
�Copyright 2000 The New .York Times Company
The New York Times
~turday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 3; Column 1; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 1429 words
HEADLINE: Colombians Flee Into Panama as War Fears Rise
BYLINE: By DAVID GONZALEZ
DATELINE: JAQUE, Panama
\
BODY:
Bertilda Castro Tejada and her family are living in this small Panamanian village where time and trouble are all they
have. The place may be dreary, but, unlike the home they left in Colombia, it is not deadly. At least not yet.
They fled to Panama from their home in Jurado, Colombia, soon after leftist guerrillas overran the police station and
military barracks there in December. After enduring an 18-hour siege, they feared that they would not survive the
inevitable: right-wing paramilitary death squads that were sure to arrive, dispensing vengeance on those who had
helped the guerrillas.
"There are no police in Jurado," Mrs. Castro said, sitting outside a friend's cramped home, where she and her family
live for now. "The guerrillas are in the mountains. When the paramilitaries come they beat up the peasants, asking,
'Where are the guerrillas?' We are defenseless. They do whatever they want with you because a town without law is not
worth anything."
Faced with endless fighting, hundreds of Colombians-- 800 by official estimates-- have found refuge in Panama's
dense jungle province of Darien, crossing over the sprawling border as they did in more peaceful times when
Panamanians and Colombians alike went looking for commerce and companionship.
So too have the guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC,
as have the paramilitary squads, searching for refugees they suspect of giving medicine, food or shelter to the guerrillas.
The arrival of more than 500 frightened refugees here just before Christmas placed a sudden burden on Panamanian .
officials who, lacking resources, turned to intematio111al relief agencies and the Roman Catholic Church for help.
But the more unsettling question is whether the chaos and violence from Colombia will spill over the unsecured
border, especially if an American program to help Colombia battle narcotics trafficking escalates the country's civil
war.
"The border between Panama and Colombia is at this moment the most dangerous, conflicted and vulnerable one of
Latin America," said Bishop Romulo Emiliani ofth1~ Diocese of Darien. "The Colombian conflict has been spilling into
our sector because the effects of the war are extending into Panama."
While officials said that neither the Panama Canal nor Panama City, the capital some 200 miles from the border,
face any imminent danger, the incursions have become a nettlesome test for Panama's ability to control the land over
which it now has total sover~ignty.
�Panama abolished its anny after an American invasion ended the dictatorship of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega 10
years ago. And since December, when the United States gave Panama the canal, the country has lacked. the deterrent of
having American troops on hand.
"It represents a danger that is restricted for now to Darien," said Ricardo Arias Calderon, a fonner vice president, and
it "creates more of a socioeconomic problem than a security problem. But there is also a feeling among some people
that we are not enforcing our national sovereignty. We are not able to make our borders respected and give security to
the population."
·
Only about 30 miles from Colombia, Jaque is close enough .that the Panamanian border police say they often overhear
radio transmissions made by frantic Colombian forces under guerrilla attack.
It was one such attack last December that set off the exodus to Panama. Throughout the night and halfway into the
next day, residents hid under beds or pressed themselves against walls during a battle that claimed the lives of almost
two dozen soldiers, about twice as many guerrillas and o~e civilian.
"When it cleared up, they started to say that the soldiers were defeated," said one Jacque refugee, who would give
only his first name, Pedro, for fear of reprisals. "We looked out and recognized afew of the guerrillas. They came into
my home. It was raining, and we cooke~ for them. They said not to worry, nothing would happen to us."
But after they left, the military arrived with reinforcements, and that is when many Colombians decided to leave.
.
'
.
)
An officer accused them of having helped the guerrillas. "Then a military patrol came by and said, 'After us, the bad
ones are coming,' " Pedro said, referring to the paramilitaries. "They told us we should leave for a while, five or six
months, so we did."
He and five relatives each paid about 30,000 Colombian pesos, or $15, for the three-hour boat ride to Jaque. Others
risked the tangled jungle paths. When they arrived, many of the refugees had friends or family who took them in.
Life since then has hardly been easy. Although a few of the older men who are experienced fannhands cut bananas
each morning, most of the refugees have not found work. Children are not allowed to attend Panamanian schools.
Except for emergency medical treatment, none of the refugees are allowed to travel outside of the town.
Like Jose Perez, who arrived in December, all they can do is wait. Mr. Perez stood on the shore recently watching as
some of the townspeople clambered aboard boats that would make the overnight trip to Panama City. It was a teasing
-diversion from his otherwise boring routine. In Jurado, he was successful enough as a jack-of-all-trades to keep himself
and his family comfortable in a two-story house with an oelectrical generator. "I had a house with everything," he said.
"Here, I sleep on a piece of cardboard on the floor."
He watched the boats and wondered when he might go home. But he and the others will stay here until the Colombian
government, with the help of the United Nations and human rights monitors; can assure their safety back home. That
may take as much as eight months, since that is how long Colombian officials said it would take to rebuild the police
station.
In Jaque, about 15 Panamanian border policemen patrol the town, walking at night in pairs with assault rifles slung
. over their shoulders. Residents said they were worried that the police force could be overwhelmed if Colombian
guerrillas oi: paramilitaries came to the area.
Last year anned groups attacked a settlement on the Caribbean coast, burning several houses. In 1997, according to
Bishop Emiliani, 40 paramilitary troops went to the Panamanian town ofYape and stayed there for three days until they
found their target, a Colombian doctor who had treilted guerrillas, and executed him.
"There is a vast stretch without any police presence," the bishop said. "It is very dangerous. Little by little, Darien can
·
become a path for crime if this is not stopped."
�.
By various estimates, there are about 1,000 members of armed groups in Darien. "The Panamanians just don't mess
with them, and for good reason, because they would get their clocks cleaned," a diplomat said.
Panamanian officials are beefing up border p~iice units with helicopters and other equipment. The measures are part
of the country's first national security plan, which has b1!en stalled for months by political bickering. "Panama has got
to step up to the plate in that this is their border," said the United States ambassador to Panama, Sirp.on Ferro.
·
Panamanian officials said they would welcome foreign assistance, but they also do not want to re-establish their own
army; nor do they want a return of foreign troops.
"We as a government have a frrm policy not to i-emilitarize our country," said Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Aleman.
"As a political party, we lived a traumatic history under the military dictatorship. We suffered a lot with exile, jail and
no freedom of expression. We do not want to reinstate the military in our country. We do not want the border, given all
that has happened, to be an excuse to remilitarize our country."
Indeed, one approach the Panamanian government has undertaken is to begin an $80 million development project in
Darien, building roads and providing services that would 111ake the area seem less isolated.
At the same time, Mr. Aleman said his government was supporting the peace effort started by Colombia's president,
Andres Pastrana. He also said no refugees would be returned to Colombia until Mr. Pastrana's government could assure
their safety. But few people here in Jaque think peace will come soon.
.
"I do not think it will ever be resolved here," said Silda Segura, a nurse who lives here. "This is the border, and it will
always be like this. In this town you always had Colombians. If before they came here when they had no problems,
imagine what would happen if the situation becomes difficult over there."
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Photos: A family of Colombian refugees while away the hours outside their rented hut. The refugees are not
permitted to leave Jaque except for medical emergencies. Few have found jobs, and their children are not allowed to
attend Panamanian schools. Townspeople in Jaque, who travel regularly to Panama City by boat to buy and sell goods,
load canoes that will take them to a boat headed for the capital. (Photographs by Alex Quesada!Matrix, for Thf; New
York Times) ·
·
·
Map of Panama highlighting Jaque: Caught in Colombia's civil war, many Jurado residents fled ,to Jaque.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-D~ TE:
April22, 2000
�Copyright 2000 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The Plain Dealer
April 13, 2000 Thursday, FINAL I ALL
SECTION: EDITORIAL & FORUM; Pg. liB
LENGTH: 722 words
HEADLINE: COLOMBIA'S CRISIS THREATENS REGION, U.S.
BYLINE: By Paul D. Coverdell
BODY:
The recent rise in oil prices has revived America's appreciation for its strategic relationships with countries in the
Middle East and reminded us why we came to their defense in the Persian Gulf War a half-world away. To me, there is
an indisputable parallel to the situation in our own back yard: the crisis in Colombia.
A decade ago the United States went to war with a powerful enemy partly to stabilize a major oil-producing region.
We worried that Iraq would attack Saudi Arabia, an ally and one of the United States' largest oil suppliers. Where is that
same concern with Colombia today? The destabilization of Colombia directly affects bordering Venezuela, now
generally regarded as our largest oil supplier. In fact, the oil picture in Latui America is strikingly similar to that of the
Middle East, except that Colombia provides us more oil today than Kuwait did then. This crisis, like the one in Kuwait,
threatens to spill over into many nations, all ofwhich are allies.
But momentum in Congress to help Colombia has stalled, and it is hard to· understand why. Colombia is an
undeniable national security emergency for our country.
These left-wing guem as control almost 40 percent of Colombia's territory, and their violence has reached the
outskirts of Bogota. The drug-fueled violence has take·n more than 35,000 Jives in the past decade. Numbers of
displaced Colombians approach the levels we saw in Kosovo at its height- more than 800,000 since 1995. And
Colombia is now home to one-third of all acts of terrorism worldwide, with 2,663 kidnappings in 1999 alone. The
future of Latin America's. oldest democracy is at stake.
The conflict is spreading. Colombian guerrillas move freely across the border into Panama, a country with no
standing army. Just recently, rebels overran a Colombian military base 15 miles from the Panamanian border, killing
more than 40 Colombian law-enforcement officials and soldiers. Such brazenness heightens the fear that Panama will
not be able to defend itself or the canal. Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador all have moved troops to their borders with
Colombia because of increased incursions into their nations by Colombia's guerrillas.
Regional instability not only threatens a large source of U.S. oil (our hemisphere provides about half our total oil
imports), it fuels a steady flow of drugs onto our stn~ets. Colombia supplies 80 percent of the cocaine and 60 percent of
the heroin consumed in the United States. Narcotics represent the most immediate and de!ldly threat we face ·in the
hemisphere, causing 52,000 deaths a year and costing an estimated $110 billion annually.
As the situation deteriorates, Colombians are fleeing their country in droves- hundreds of thousands in the past four
1
years, and visa applications to the United States nearly tripled last year.
Let me restate the crisis: We import as much oil fi:om this hemisphere as we do from the Middle East; more·
�Colombians than Kosovars have been forced to flee their homes; 35,000 Colombians are dead. That's why the situation
demands our immediate attention.
Last fa:ll; Sens. Mike De Wine, Charles Grassley and I introduced a $1.6 billion aid package to address the situation in
Colombia. It is a balanced approach that mirrors President Andres Pastrana's blueprint for stability. Our plan
strengthens counter-narcotic efforts by assisting military and law-enforcement agencies, while promoting respect for
human rights and judicial integrity. After years of neglect, the Clinton administration was forced to put forward a
similar proposal.
The situation in Colombia is an emergency and must be dealt with urgently. If this means the Colombia aid must be
pulled out of the larger emergency spending bill of which it is now a part, so be it. The price of not acting soon will be
more costly than the figures being d~bated. The sec~rity and prosperity of all the Americas depends on our immediate
and effective response. "
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
COLUMN: A FORUM OF OPINION & IDEAS
LOAD-DATE: April14, 2000
�Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
Apri110, 2000, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 738 words
HEADLINE: Starting With Colombia
BYLINE: Paul D. Coverdell
BODY:
The recent rise in oil prices has revived America's appreciation for its strategic relationships with countries in the
Middle East and reminded us why we came to their defense in the Persian Gulf War a half-world away. To me, there is
an indisputable parallel to the situation· in our own back yard: the crisis in Colombia.
A decade ago the United States went to war with a powerful enemy partly to stabilize a major oil-producing region.
We worried that Iraq would attack Saudi Arabia, an ally and one of the United States' largest oil suppliers. Where is that
same concern with Colombia today? The destabilization of Colombia directly affects bordering Venezuela, now
generally regarded as our largest oil supplier. In fact, the oil picture in Latin America is strikingly similar to that of the
Middle East, except that Colombia provides us more oil today than Kuwait did then. This crisis, like the one in Kuwait,
threatens to spill over into many nations, all of which are allies.
But momentum in Congress to help Colombia has stalled, and it is hard to understand why. Colombia is an
undeniable national security emergency for our country.
The political and economic breakdown in Colombia is fueled by the rising narcotics threat in the region. Colombia is
fighting for survival against a powerful rebel insurgency bankrolled by the illicit drug business. Estimates are that the
guerrillas rake in $1 billion annually from drugs. The ~result is a well-funded, well-armed rebel army that threatens the
state's authority .
. These left-wing guerrillas control almost 40 percent of Colombia's territory, and their violence has reached the
outskirts of Bogota. The drug-fueled violence has takfm its toll, claiming more than 35,000 lives in the past decade.
Numbers of displaced Colombians approach the levels we saw in Kosovo at its height--more than 800,000 since 1995.
And Colombia is now home to one-third of all acts of terrorism worldwide, with 2,663 kidnappings in 1999 alone. The
future of Latin America's oldest democracy is at stake.
The conflict is spreading. Colombian guerrillas move freely across the border into Panama, a country with no
standing army. Just recently, rebels overran a Colombian military base 15 miles from the Panamanian border, killing
more than 40 Colombian law enforcement officials and soldiers. Such brazenness heightens the fear that Panama will
not be able to defend itselfor the canal. Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador all have moved troops to their borders with
Colombia because of increased incursions into their nations by Colombia's guerrillas.
Regional instability not only threatens a large source of U.S. oil (our hemisphere provides about half our total oil
i1pports), it fuels a steady flow of drugs onto our stref~ts. Colombia supplies 80 percent of the cocaine and 60 percent of
the heroin consumed in the United States. Narcotics represent the most immediate and deadly threat we face in the
hemisphere, causing 52,000 deaths a year and costing an estimated $110 billion annually.
As the situation deteriorates, Colombians are fleeing their country in droves--hundreds of thousands in the past four
�·I'
y~ars, and visa application_s to the United States nearly tripled last year.
Let me restate the crisis: We import as much oil from this hemisphere as we do from the Middle East; more
Colombians than Kosovars have been forced to flee the:ir homes; 35,000 Colombians are dead. That's why the situation
demands our immediate attention.
·
Last fall, Sens. Mike De Wine, Charles Grass ley and I introduced a $1.6 billion aid package to address the situation in
Colombia. It is a balanced approach that mirrors Presidlent Andres Pastrana's blueprint for stability. Our plan
strengthens counter-narcotic efforts by assisting military and.law enforcement agencies, while promoting respect for
human rights and judicial integrity. After years of neglect, the Clinton administration was forced to put forward a
similar proposal.
· The situation in Colombia is an emergency and must be dealt with urgently. If this means the Colombia aid must be
pulled out of the larger emergency spending bill of which it is now a part, so be it. The price of not acting soon will be
more costly than the figures being debated. The security and prosperity of all the Americas depends on our immediate
and effective response.
The writer is a Republican senator from Georgia.
)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: AprillO, 2000
�\
Copyright 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
March 28, 2000, Tuesday , FINAL
SECTION: NEWS,
Pg.A2
LENGTH: 477 words
HEADLINE: COLOMBIA;
LEFTIST REBELS WAGE ATTACKS ON GOVERNMENT AND KILL 24
SOURCE: P-I News Services
BODY:
Inflicting the heaviest government caslialties in monti\s,!eftist rebels killed at least 24 policemen and soldiers in a
series of attacks since the weekend.
\
·
,
'
.
"-=·-=-=-~----------------------------
Five rebels from the country's largest leftist insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
were also reported killed in the fighting, which raged in two fishing villages near the border with Panama and a region
in the South American country's far north.
Twenty-one police officers died trying to repel a 36-hour rebel assault on Vigia del Fuerte, 230 miles from Bogota,
that began Saturday. Six civilians were also killed, officials said yesterday.
Troops regained control of the town of I,200 residents'Sunday night.ECUADORHeavy rains blamed for malaria
infecting I 00,000 An outbreak of malaria has left about I 00,000 people infected in this small Andean nation, health
officials said yesterday.
Authorities said the vast majority of patients were not at risk of dying, if they received proper treatment.
Officials blamed much of the increase on more breeding sites for mosquitoes that carry the disease. They said recent
· heavy rains increased the amount of pooled and stagnant water where the insects breed.
At least six people have died in Ecuador recently from malaria. Symptoms usually include fever, chills, joint pain and
vomiting.FRANCEFrench colonel suspected of leaking Kosovo secrets A French colonel was detained yesterday on
suspicion he had leaked state secrets to the media about French peacekeepers in the troubled Yugoslav province of
Kosovo, judicial sources said.
·
The classified documents described bitterness among some peacekeepers toward BernardKouchner, U.N.
administrator for Kosovo. They also highlightedrifts within French forces in Kosovo - between the army and the
gendarmerie, a national police forced controlled by the Defense Minis-try.
Jean-Michel Mechain, a colonel in the gendarmerie, was placed in provisional detention and under investigation for
"divulging a secret pertinent to national defense," according to judicial sources who spoke on customary condition of
anonymity. ·
Iffound guilty, Mechairi, 46, could face seven years in prison and a fine of$I04,000. Mechain has said he is not
guilty of leaking the documents, and he has not yet been formally charged in the case.ELSEWHERE Sweden:
Adventurer Goeran Kropp, suffering from a frostbitten thumb, was picked up early yesterday by .a rescue helicopter
after skiing only halfway to the North Pole. His partnt!r, Ola Skinnarmo, continued alorie in the quest to be the first
�Swede at the North Pole. The two left the northern Russian island ofNovaya Zemlya on Feb. 27 and were expected to
ski the 600 miles in 55 days. "The North Pole will still be there, and I can always try again later," Kropp, 33,said. He
was to be taken to a hospital in Sweden.
NOTES: Briefs
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 29,2000
�.;·
Copyright 2000 The~ New York Times Company
The New York Times
March 28, 2000, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Pag·e 4; Column 4; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 263 words
HEADLINE: Rebel Attacks on 2 Colombian Villages Kill 30
BYLINE: AP
\
DATELINE: BOGOTA, Colombia, March 27
BODY:
Fierce guerrilla attacks on two northern fishing towns killed at least 30 people' during the weekend, including 24
police officers, a mayor, and two children, officials said.
At least seven police officers were taken prisoner by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia's
, largest leftist insurgency, officials said. Four other officers were missing.
Troops ~egained control on Sunday night of Vigia del Fuerte -- site of the worst clash -- and found the riverfront
town of 1,200 in ruins.
Rebel machine-gun fire and homemade missiles destroyed a church, the mayor's office, the police barracks, the
·
telephone company and 10 houses near the main plaza in the town, near the border with Panama.
Twenty-one police officers died trying to repel the 36~hour barrage, which began on Saturday. Six civilians also died,
including the mayor, Pastor Perea, and two children, the Antioquia state government reported.
"It was a merciless attack," Fernando Aristizabal, a top state official told Colombia's Caracol Radio.
f
The rebels also hit Bojaya, a nearby town in neighboring Choco State, where, Mr. Aristizabal reported, three. police
officers were killed.
Rebel attacks on rural towns and remote military installations are continuing despite peace talks with the government
of President Andres Pastrana. The two are negotiating without a cease~ fire.
The rebels are also suspected of setting off a car bomb on Sunday that killed a police cadet and injured 16 civilians in
a crowded market in Girardot, a popular tourist spot 60 miles south of Bogota.
http://www .nytimes.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 28, 2000
�Copyright 2000 The Roanoke Times & World News
Roanoke Times & World News
March 19,2000, Sunday, METRO EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL,
Pg.4
LENGTH: 857 words
HEADLINE: TAIWAN AND COLOMBIA EMERGE AS PERILOUS ISSUES FOR U.S. FOREIGN POLICY;
TREADING ON DANGEROUS GROUND
BYLINE: DONALD NUECHTERLEIN
BODY:
'
TWO RECENT decisions in Washington, one in the House of Representatives on military assistance to Taiwan and
the other a Clinton administration plan to substantially increase military aid to Colombia, pose dangers for U.S. foreign
policy.
Colombia, a Latin American country lying on the Caribbean just south of Panama, has been tom by various stages of
a civil war that has gone on for 40 years. What makes this a dangerous situation for the United States is Colombia's
huge capacity for making illegal drugs, most of which are smuggled into the United States. Bogota seerris powerless to
stop the drug lords who pay huge. bribes to get protection from insurgent groups as well as corrupt governtt1ent officials.
A few weeks ago, President Clinton proposed $1.6 billion in U.S. assistance to Colombia to help its military forces
wrest control of the cocoa-producing territories from the guerrillas and drug lords. Part of this large aid program would
go for helicopters and other equipment for use in the anti-drug campaign. Another part would go for training and
upgrading local military forces engaged in the anti-insurgency effort. Some funds would be used to help strengthen
President Andres Pastrana's government and to reform a judicial system that is heavily influenced by drug money.
Finally, and n.ot least, the aid program would provide American military "advisers~· to train and equip the Colombian
military to do the counterinsurgency job, a proposal that causes some members of Congress and experts to raise the
specter of Vietnam. They worry that aiding a counterinsurgency campaign eventually will involve the United States in
another country's civil war and r~sult in combat forces being used to' bolster Colombia's armed forces.
Regarding Taiwan, the House of Representatives on Feb. I voted 341-40 to strengthen U.S. military ties with Taiwan
in order to help it counter a recent Chinese military buildup in Southeast China. The measure was supported by both
Republicans and Democrats, but the White House and State Department strongly opposed the measure. The Senate is
considering a similar bill.
The House vote highlights the ambiguity in U.S. relations with China. Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway
province and in 1972 the Nixon administration bowed to international pressure and recognized the
Beijing regime as the sole government of China. The American diplomatic mission then moved from Taipei to
Beijing, which also took over the China seat on the U.N. Security Council. This arrangement was formalized by an
agreement in 1979. ·
However, the United States stipulated at the time that reunification of China and Taiwan had to be accomplished
peacefully through negotiations and pledged to assist Taiwan in case of a military attack by China. For nearly two
decades this arrangement worked well for Taiwan, for China and for the United States.
�Tensions flared in 1996 during Taiwan's first presidential election campaign when some politicians talked about
declaring Taiwan's independence. China reacted by firing missiles near Taiwan's harbors. President Clinton then
ordered U.S. warships into the area. Nevertheless, Beijing recently declared that it will attack Taiwan if it refuses to
negotiate reunification and instead declares its independence.
On Saturday, Taiwan held another presidential election. One of the three contending parties, the Democratic
Progressive Party, favors independence. If it gains strength, another crisis could result between China and Taiwan, and
Washington would face a quandary regarding its future relationship with Taiwan.
Congress and the president need to ask themselves whether the pledge to defend Taiwan in case of an attack by China
should apply if Taiwan's government eventually goes. ahead, despite U.S. protests, and declares its independence. The
key issue here would be: Does Taiwan rise to the level of a vital interest, one that is so important that the president
would be justified in using American military forces to defend it? I don't believe so.
It is a mistake for Congress to insist on upgrading the U.S. military pledge to Taiwan by providing it with
sophisticated military equipment. Washington should re:iterate its policy, which goes back to the 1970s, that we will
oppose military pressure by China to force Taiwan to unify with the mainhmd; at the same time, both the president and
Congress should make clear that, if Taiwan unilaterally declares independence, the U.S. pledge of protection will end.
Ambiguity in foreign policy is sometimes a virtue, but the China/Taiwan case is not one of these cases. Clarity about
what the United States will not do is just as important to peace in· the Taiwan Strait area as reassuring Taiwan that it will
counter a Chinese attack on the island. It should be stated clearly that this country will not support independence for
· Taiwan. Otherwise, we run the risk of a large war with China, which is not in the U.S. interest.
DONALD NUECHTERLEIN, who lives near Charlottesville, is author of the forthcoming "America Recommitted: A
Superpower Assesses Its Role In A Turbulent World."
GRAPHIC: graphic - ALEXANDER HUNTER WASHINGTON TIMES
TYPE: COMMENTARY
LOAD-DATE: March 21,2000
�- - - - - - - - - - - - - -------
Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
March 13,2000, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1379 words
HEADLINE: U.S. Officials Cite Trend in Colombia; Lack of Air Support Hindering Drug War
BYLINE: Roberto Suro , Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
A key element of the drug war in Colombia is faltering because U.S. surveillance flights over major cocaineproducing regions have declined by two-thirds· oyer the: past year, according to administration officials.
The near disappearance of U.S. radar planes from Andean skies severely erodes the ability of U.S. forces to spot
smugglers flying low over the jungle and direct intercept missions by South American warplanes.
In Peru those intercepts proved highly successful, helping drive down Peruvian coca production by two-thirds
·between 1995 and 1999, according to Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
For want of such simple equipment as fire trucks and navigational beacons, the interdiction effort has barely gotten
underway over an area of southwestern Colombia, which took up the slack from Peru. Colombia doubled ,its coca ·
production during the same 1995-99 period to an estimated 520 tcms last year (twice U.S. annual consumption). That
burgeoning cocaine trade finances an anti-government :insurgency:
Moreover, in Peru drug traffickers are resurgent because of the decline in surveillance and interdiction, U.S. and
Latin American officials said.
That decline is the result of diplomatic setbacks, friction between Congress and the Clinton administration, Pentagon
infighting and the competing demands of other military operations, the officials said.
Restoring aerial surveillance is "absolutely critical" to U.S. anti-drug initiatives in South America, Marine Gen.
Charles E. Wilhelm, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom), recently told Congress. "I am in
urgent need of help on the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance side," Wilhelm said.
'\
Wilhelm said he had reduced South Com to the lowest readiness status for those functions, meaning that it could not
be expected to carry out its assigned missions. .
)
The $1.6 billion package of counter-narcotics aid for Colombia working its way though Congress includes only minor
provisions to boost surveillance flights and does nothing to deliver what Wilhelm says he needs most: E-3 A WACS, the
Air Force's largest and most sophisticated radar plane. "Those are the long-reach, long-look airplanes that we need to do
the job in the deep source zone," Wilhelm said.
·
The nation's 30 AWACS are in such heavy demand elsewhere that none are permanently assigned to South Com and
temporary tours have become increasingly rare since the air campaign ·in Kosovo last spring.
"We are just way too stretched out between the Balkans, Iraq and North Korea to commit these assets to drug
interdiction in South America," said a senior Air Force official.
�Concerned that the Pentagon underestimates the importance of the drug war, McCaffrey wrote Defense Secretary
William S. Cohen last month warning that weakened capabilities in Latin America could jeopardize the Colombia
effort. The retired army general asked for a commitment to rebuild surveillance capacities, according to senior officials.
While declining to discuss the letter, McCaffrey said in an interview that "our ability to get into the Andean ridge has
dwindled to about zero." The White House drug official said he had made it known throughout the administration that
"I think we have to ·get going on this, and if we don't, we face a potential disaster within three or four years."
Surveillance flights are essentiai "because we can't go in there and fight this ourselves. The best thing we can give
these countries· is good intelligence about the source zones so they can get in there and do it themselves, but since last
May, that has not been possible," a senior administration official said.
Last May, U.S. military forces and Jaw enforcement agencies abandoned Howard Air Base in Panama and lost the
use of the long runways and first-class maintenance and supply facilities that for decades had supported U.S. air
operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Rec'ognizing its importance to counter-narcotic efforts, the
Panamanian government initially indicated a willingness to Jet Howard continue operating after other U.S. installations
were closed when the United States·ceded control of the Panama Canal. But early last year, the Panamanians
unexpectedly insisted thatU.S. forces leave Howard.
More than 2,000 flights a year had been taking off from Howard on drug-related missions, including surveillance
flights that allowed Peruvian authorities to target coca fields.for eradication and to intercept airplanes carrying cocaine
from production Jabs to embarkation points for shipment to the United States.
Just as the United States planned to shift the surveilhmce strategy from Peru to Colombia, it fou'nd itself obliged to
seek a replacement for Howard. Concluding that no single facility could do the job, Southern Command and the State
. Department tried to fill the gap by, borrowing space at several airfields.
In recent months, Customs Service radar planes and Air National Guard F-16s have flown out of airports on Curacao
and Aruba, two islands in the southern Antilles, to track smugglers crossing the Caribbean in boats or airplanes.
Surveillance of the cocaine-producing regions in Colombia, Petu and Bolivia was to be based out of a military airfield
in Manta, Ecuador--a Pacific port roughly midway between the coca-growing regions in Colombia and Peru.
"From Manta and only from Manta can we reach down and cover the deep southern portion of the source zone," said
Wilhelm, promoting the' Colombia aid package on Capitol Hill.
But the airfield, which had been a training base for Ecuadorian military h~licopter pilots, lacked even basic
maintenance, storage, safety and navigational facilities and the runway was in disrepair and too short for big jets such as
AWACS.
Republican leaders in Congress last year refused to authorize funding for initial improvements at Manta, arguing that
the Clinton administration had mishandled the neg~tiations for Howard and failed to secure a long-term agreement with
Ecuador for use of Manta.
·
South Com found funds to make patchwork repairs on the Manta runway after a short-term pact was reached last April
and it opened last summer. But only one airplane at a time has been able to use Manta because it Jacked a fire truck and
other safety equipment. The surveillance aircraft, all small, short-range models, operate only in daylight becau~e Manta
lacks basic navigational aids.
"The narcos are smart enough to fly at night and so we have not been able to accomplish much on that front," said an
administration official.
A long-term agreement was reached with Ecuador at the end of last year, and the Air Force is 'due to have the safety
�- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
and navigation equipment in place by the middle of next month, nearly a year after they were first requested.
Addressing the reluctance to make even a minor investment in Manta, a senior Air Force official said, "Look, we get
asked to do everything, and when this one came through the door and we had to do it with our own money, there was a
feeling of 'Hey, why shouldn't the Navy or somebody else take care of it?' "
The Colombian counter-narcotics package before Congress includes a request to spend $38 million in fiscal2001 on
'reinforcing and lengthening the runways at Manta so they can handle A WACS and the tanke~s that allow them to fly
long missions. Even if the work is completed, the aircraft may not be available.
"At this point the entire fleet of AWACS is committed to missions where Americans are in harm's way or where there
is a high threat of conflict, and so if any planes go to Manta on a regular basis, someone is going to have to decide
whether it is Iraq or Korea or someplace else that has to give them up," the senior Air Force official said.
In the meantime, McCaffrey, Wilhelm and others are worried about new threats in Colombia and the erosion of gains
in Peru. For more than a year, the Peruvian government has been complaining that the lack of U.S. surveillance has
crippled its air interdiction program, according to senior officials. As a result, the Peruvians say, the powerful deterrent
effect of the "you fly, you die" campaign has worn off and cocaine traffickers are back in the air.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 13, 2000
\'
�Copyright 2000 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The Plain Dealer
March 5, 2000 Sunday, FINAL I ALL
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. SA
LENGTH: 467 words
HEADLINE: DRIVEN BY FEAR, COLOMBIANS_!J2A VE THEIR NATION IN DROVES
BYLINE: By LARRY ROHTER;
~W YORK TIMES)
DATELINE: CALI, COLOMBIA
BODY:
The long, chaotic line outside the government passport office her
shortly after sunrise. By the end of
the day, as has been the case. eve
~TG'J"-'-U-.:2""'-+'will be issued to a multitude of
Colombians eager tole
a country that has become one of the w·ot:!U:S..ill.llSL.UW~!r.>a
any will be headed
for the United States:
--·-··
"Until the end of 1998, the high figure had been about 500 a day, and then only during the peak vacation season in
July and August," said Colo
tldina,the-passpert~oopartmen'
eary director. "But we no longer have a high or
slow season any re, just a constant flow of people wanting to et out."
After four decades of civil conflict and a proliferation of guns and gangs, the forces driving Colombians to abandon
their country are perhaps especially acute in this city of2 million people, best known for its ruthless drug cartels. But
the phenomenon is national, with people of every class leaving from small towns and rural areas as well as large cities.
By government estimates, 800,000 people - 2 percent of Colombia's total population of 40 million - have left the
country in the last four years. The expectation is that the exodus has not yet reached its peak because the country's
problems are no nearer a solution. And the prospect of a $1.6 billion, two-year aid package from the United States has
not eased Colombians' anxieties.
Political violence continues to rise and left-wing guerrilla and iight-wi
ramilitary groups increasingly use
kidnapping and extort·
e..finance-theiLwar..wit!!..!_ach other arid the stat . olombia's murder rate is 10 times that of
the United States, nd last year 2,663 kidnappings W'eryeported. Both rates, expe s say, are
·
.
S.uch statistics, abstract as t ey are, ave left the average citizen with a very real feeling that there is no longer a safe
haven to be found anywhere on Colombian soil.
The raw numbers ofpeopleleaving are alarming enough, but because many of those exi!l_ng are highly educated
professionals, including engineers, architects and doctors, the accelerating exodus has become a deep source of concern
.- here.
"Colombia in its entirety has been transformed'into a giant travel agency," Juan Fernando Cristo complained in a
. recent column in El Espectador, a major national daily. "Everyone seems disposed to emigrate, and nothing could be
worse for the country than this r w.ing-phenomenmnmcttne su6sequent loss ofhuman-talent._ roductivity and
For many Cali residents; a turning point came last spring when a unit of one of the country's leftist guerrilla gro s,
the People's Liberation Army, raided a church in an affluent neighborhood during Sunday Mass and took more than 0
hostage~m.
�GRAPHIC: PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS; Hector Navarro sleeps at a temporary shelter for displace people at
the church ofRiosucio in northern Columbia on Feb. 9 Navarro and his family were among 4,200 villagers that three
years ago fled their hamlets along the Cacarica River, n1~ar Colombia's border with Panama, escaping increased
violence by leftist rebels ~d rightist paramilitary groups.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 6, 2000
�Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Vv'ashington Post
March 5, 2000, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: Ol]TLOOK; Pg. BOl
LENGTH: 1450 words
HEADLINE: The U.S. Is Setting A Trap for Itselfln Colombia
BYLINE: Ralph Peters
BODY:
I often speak to military audiences about the future of conflict. Increasingly, the conflict of the future about which my
listeners ask is the possibility of American military intervention in Colombia. Nothing so convinces soldiers of the
inevitability of escalation as hearing their leaders make :frequent promises to Congress that U.S .. forces will not be
required, if only military aid expands dramatically. When generals insist that "advisers" can handle the mission,
Sergeant Rock starts packing his rucksack.
No one suspects a secret plan to deploy American battalions in support of the Bogota government. The situation is
worse than that: The Clinton administration's proposed $1.6 billion in security aid is a substitute for a strategy. Our
policy is essentially to send a check and cross our fingers. There is no evidence that the White House and the Pentagon
have engaged in conceptual thinking about Colombia and die troubled region around it. As with the former Yugoslavia,
U.S. civilian and military leaders are declining to think the problem through, fearing what serious analysis might reveal.
Despite the provision of 30 Black Hawk and 33 Huey helicopters, the aid package amounts to treating cancer with a
topical 9intment. More aircraft and other military materiel may give specific Colombian units a local advantage, but
they are unlikely to bring about a strategic decision. We can keep the Bogota regime alive, but we cannot make it
victorious.
The aid package could prove to be money well spent, if its purpose is to give the Pastrana government a last chance
to show resolve and rescue Colombia from narco-guerrillas and terrorists on both the left and right. A save-yourself
allowance makes 'sense. But any expansion of U.S. military involvement in support of a corrupt, feudal regime would
be folly. The number of U.S. personnel attached to.the aid package must be severely restricted, limited to those whose
presence is both ess(mtial and advantageous to our interests. This means auditors to ensure the aid is not stolen or
misused, intelligence personnel to monitor the situation a.nd training teams kept well away from combat. Of those, the
trainers raise the most concern, because advisers tend to bond with their student units and have been known to bend the
rules to extend their "training roles" onto the .battlefield. In the heat of the moment, it is all too easy to forget that the
president and Congress, not colonels, decide when U.S. forces go to war.
Before we send the aid, though, we must ask some tough, basic questions. Does the Colombian government--feckless,
corrupt and inconstant--deserve our help to survive? Is that government the means to a solution, or an intrinsic part of
the problem? Why should a single U.S. dollar, to say nothing of a U.S. soldier, be sent to prop up a military in which no
Colombian with a high-school diploma is required to senre? Plenty of Colombians profit from the disorder and do not
really want the rule of law. They only want a little more room to maneuver. Expatriate Colombians, lolling on Florida
beaches or shopping in Madrid, would be perfectly willing to fight to the last American G .1.
· When U.S. officials bluster about the thousands of casualties the Colombian military and police have suffered fighting
drug-funded guerrillas, they fail to mention that most of the fallen were semiliterate draftees pressed into service,
poorly trained and ill-equipped, and led by t_he ambitious sons of the lower middle class. Those with the least stake in
�~he system do the dying. Those who profit park their funds offshore. We must beware the "Saudi syndrome," in which
utterly undeserving foreign regimes manipulate us into doing their fighting for thein.
We hear much about the lessons of Vietnam, usually from those who never served in uniform. There are, indeed,
lessons from our Indochina experience pertinent to Colombia and other conflicts in which no side is honorable, but
those lessons are not the self-justifying nonsense dear to our social elite about the unwillingness of Americans to suffer
casualties. Rather, the salient Jesson of Vietnam is that no amount ofU.S. largess or American might can save a
government unable to save itself. We can only prolong the gruesome status quo.
Another Jesson is that u.s_, aid, generous and ill-managed, can prove addictive arid enervating to the recipient.
Military prowess matters less than moral determination. And we fall for those clever enough to spout democratic
slogans, rejecting evidence of corruption or inefficacy on the part of those whom we have chosen as our icons.
Incremental engagement favors the enemy, and you cannot vanquish an enemy who is allowed to retreat into
sanctuaries. The lessons of Vietnam go on and on, but, to borrow the title of a novel from the 1960s, "Everybody
Knows and Nobody Cares."
The greatest difference between Colombia and Vietnam is, paradoxically, at Colombia matters, strategically an
immediately to the United States. It is the keystone in an arch of troubled countries in the Western hemisphere, from the
turmoil of Venezuela on one end, through the Panama Canal, the fragile Central American states and lawless Mexico
on the other. It is at the forefront of northern Latin America's backward plunge into caudillo politics, institutional decay,
resurgent corruption and murder as a business tactic. Drugs that originate in or pass through Colombia have done far
more harm to Americans and our society than the Vietnam War. Oil from Venezuela and Colombia is crucial to our
economic welfare.
Still, none of this justifies the loss of a single American life in support of the Pastrana government. Send the money,
but if the Colombians need mechanics for those helicopters, Jet them hire civilians from the blood-money firms run by
our retired generals, This is critical, because while the untutored watch for the dispatch of infantry battalions, it is the
deployment of logistics units and other support troops that backs us into war. When you start·hearing that "the
Colombians just need some maintenance backup," or "they can pull it off if we just help out {vith the long-haul
communications," it's time to bring the peace symbols and protest banners down from the attic.
If the Colombian military and police succeed, so much the better. But the likeliest outcome is a stalemate--fine with
corr'upt officials, black marketeers, narco-traffickers and the broad assortment of bullies who profit from disorder. The
unwanted result of our aid may be to strengthen the current system just enough to preserve all its worst characteristics,
maintaining the balance of evils. And should Colombian forces drive the narco-guerrillas into a comer and find the will
to press the right-wing death squads against the wall, the response will be terror attacks in Bogota, resulting in the
panicked restraint of the military and another cycle pf violence.
Contrary to the nightmares of our diplomats, who often cherish even the worst status quo, the best result might be the
collapse of the Colombian government. That might bring about a regional consensus for intervention and save the
United States from spending or even bleeding alone while disingenuous neighbors cry, "Yankee, go home!" We may
well end up fighting in Colombia some day, for genuine 1interests. But if we do, it must be as a coalition member in
support of a worthy new regime and with a clear, decisiv•e purpose. A new government built around Colombians who
have both courage and a sense of moral decency, a new c6ristitution that does more than enshrine the rights of an
oligarchy, and a new military that does more than drain the blood of the poor might be worthy of our support. The
current Bogota government Jacks any moral weight beyond a drab incumbency. Its "democracy" is little more than a
tool of the rich and empowered. Colombia needs a new beginning, not a prolonged death struggle.
The corruption and bloody-mindedness of Colombia's elite drove Simon Bolivar to despair and an early death in
1830. In response to critics of its fitful support of the Bogota government, the Clinton administration trots out one or
�two heroic Colombians as examples. But the tragedy of the great Latin American liberator was that individual heroes
are notenough. If Colombians are unwilling to fight for their country, Yankee money and blood cannot redeem them.
Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer whose special projects included a strategic reconnaissance in the Andean ridge
and service in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. His most recent book is "Fighting for the Future: Will
America Triumph?" (Stackpole)
GRAPHIC: Illustration, phil foster for The Washington Post
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: March 05, 2000
�NSC COMMUNICATIONS AGENDA
May 1, zooo
SRB PRESS AND SPEECHES
• Columbia speech -- release text/other activities- Lehrer, Rose, r,adio
• Frank Sesno
• Sunday talk shows on Putin
• Joe Kahn, NYT-national security
• Riffs and accomplishments
ASIA
• PNTR event
• PNTR/Martin Lee
• Commission on International Religious Freedom
AFRICA
• Mbeki State Visit- proposal for an event, at Howard
RUSSIA
• NYT- Michael Gordon ABM-NMD series
• NMD - Brad Graham book
OTHER
• 60 Minutes - small pox
POTUS speeches
PNTR
• Coast Guard commencement
• Memorial Day
•
I
�COLOMBIA ASSISTANCE ROLLOUT
. January 11, 2000
What is in the proposed package of increased assistance for Colombia announced by the
President?
•
The proposal is a two-year, $1.6 billion request to Congress for funding to enhance our
bilateral assistance 'progr~s for Colombia.
·
• The assistance would be directed to counter-drug efforts and for other critical programs to
_ _,..,~ help President Pastrana deepen democracy and promote peace and prosperity.
What is the increased assis~ance intended·to accomplish?
•
The primary focus of the proposed increased USG assistance to Colombia is to continue
·· countering the production and trafficking of illiCit drugs, both to protect counter-drug ·
· succtf"sses elsewhere in the region and to reduce the overall amount ·of dnigs entering the
·
.
United States.
•
The increased assistance should also enable the GOC to make substantial additional progress
in the realm of alternative development arid extending effective governance throughout the
country.
Why is it in our interest to provide such s:ubstantial assistan'ce?
•
The globai drug problem is truly an increasing threat shared by all nations~ The extensive
drug production and trafficking imperils Colombia's security and fuels both addiction and
violence in other countries; including ours. ·
-
•
'
A~e
President has made.clear, strengthening stability and democracy in Colombia, and
fi htin
e dru .trade there i the Jjght thing to do, and it is very much in America's own
How does this significant funding fit into the USG's overall drug policy? Why isn't the
USG doing more to address the demand for drugs in the United States that drives.Andean
drug production in the first place?
·
•
This package is perfectly in line with our National Drug Control Strategy- a strategy that
represents a comprehensive approach that focusing on: educating children, decreasing the
addict population, breaking the cycle of drugs and crime, securing our borders, and reducing
.
·
·
·
the supply of drugs.
D
�•
Funds used for overseas ·supply reduction still represent a small percentage of our entire
National Drug Control budget. For example, in FY 99, USG funding by counter-drug
· activity was broken down as follows:
·
--Demand reduction activities (e.g., treatment, prevention, research) accounted for 33%
of the National Drug Control bu~get ($5.4 billion). . ..
·
-Domestic law enforcement accounted for 53% of that budget ($8.6 billion).
-In contrast,,our international efforts we're a mere 3%·ofthe budget ($500 million),
while interdiction act,ivities accoup.ted for'the remaining 10% ($1.6 billion).
•
To deal effectively with the overall drug problem, we need to deal simultaneously with drug
, supply reduction, transportation, distribution, and abuses issues that have a complex
interrelation. The Colombia package'will make an important:addition to this fight.
What effect is this package likely to have on the troubled Colombian economy?
Colombian econo
r
•
It must be remembered that additional resources, such as the $2.7 .billion IMF Extended'·Fund
Facility and large social and infn1structural projects supported by loans from the World Bank
·and Inter-American Development Bank, will directly contribute to the revitalization of:the ·
Colombian economy.
·
What is Plan Colombia?
·•
Plan Colombia is ari integrated, comprehensive strategy developed by the GOC to address
their many interrelated problems.
e strategy addressed four critical areas: (1) the peace process and diplomacy; (2) coun rdrug efforts, military reform, and the judicial system; (3) social development and dem
~a-nd (4_)_e_c_on_o_m_i~d~e~v~e~lo~p~m~e~n~t~-----~-~----------~~--~-------__
What is your reaction to the new strategy that the
Colo~bian
government has proposed?
•
We think that President Pastrana and his government have developed a good, comprehensive, .
integrated approach to dealing with the considerable problems facing Colombia.
e
With assistance from the United. States and other donors, the G.OC should be able to
effectively implement this new strategy, V.le expect to see progress with respect to all of the
interrelated challenges that confront Colombia, including fighting drug production and
trafficking, and jumpstarting the economic recovyry and the peace process.
�What was U.S. role in developing Plan Colombia?
•
Plan Colombia was developed by, was approved by, 3J1d will be implemented by the GOC.
•
The GOC did consult extensively with the USG as it developed and refined its strategy.
•
We have worked closely with.all other countries committed to combating the illicit drug ·
trade through robust domestic programs and international cooperation.
Is the United States seeking to impose a se•~urity and counter-drug strategy on Colombia?
•
No. The Colombian Government and the USG have been discussing the increasing problems
in Colombia on a continuing basis for more than a year. This dialogue intensified in August
·when Under. Secretary of State Pickering traveled to Bogota.
•
We assisted the Colombian Government itn developing a comprehensive, integrated strategy
to deal with the major challenges confronting Colombia, including drug trafficking, the
economic slump, and th~ slow progress of the peace.talks. The strategy that ~merged from
.
this process, however, was developed by, and approved by, the GOC.
•
The strategy deals with four critical themes: (1) the peace process and diplomacy; (2)
counter-drug efforts, military reform, and the judicial system; (3) social development and
democracy; and (4) economic developmen~.-
Has the support package been coordjnated with the GOC?
•
Of course! The package is designed to support the GOG's own Plan Colombia.
How much is the GOC contributing to the im lementation of its Plan Colombia?
•
In addition, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have committed
hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to support primarily social, humanitarian, and
·infrastructure development, as well as economic revitalization. The International Monetary
Fund has given Colombia a $2.7 billion Extended Fund Facility that should assist its.
macroeconomic recovery.
What policy reforms do you believe the Colombians need to carry out to make effective use
of this package? Are other international dlonors also providing assistance?
•
An emergency supplemental for Colombia would reinforce the determined actions of
President ].Jastrana to continue second-stage democratic reforms. These include: improving
and modernizing the judicial system to end impunity and ensure fairness, transparency; and
accountability; further professionalizing <mdrestructuring the Colombian military; and
�breaking irretrievably any remaining links between members of the security forces and illegal
armed groups.
Why is this an emergency supplemental? 'Why is it bein·g done now instead oflast fall
during the regular 2000 budget cycle?
•
President Clinton announced last fall that he wouldpresent Congress with a package to
~upport Plan Colombia early this year; this is that package.
•
Plan Colombia is a comprehensive and detailed plan, and it required a thoughtful and
comprehensive and well-integrated support package.
Why has it taken
•
~o
long to finalize. this package?
We first conducted a comprehensive policy review, and consulted extensively with the GOC,
. to ensure the most effective strategy for reaching our policy objectives ..
• ·That process took longer than expected, but we believe that the investment in time was
essential. We now have a well-conceived plan that implements the strategy and should
provide the GOC wit~ the critical additional assistance needed.
·
What about reports that U.S. support for Colombia will move beyond counter-drug
cooperation to assistance for the counter-i111surgency effort?
..
'
•
The USG will not provide counter,.insurgency aid to the GOC. Increased support to the
Colombian military will continue· to be focused on the common counter-drug objective and . ·
will be provided only after a full human rights vetting.
•
Intimations that U.S. policy will shift from cooperating with' the Colombians on the regional
counter-drug fight to assisting their counter-insurgency efforts are ill-informed. As President
Clinton has stated clearly, our policy in Colombia is to support President Pastrana's efforts to
'find a peaceful resolution to the country's longstanding civil conflict and to work with the
Colombians - along with our other regional partners - on fighting illicit drugs. ·
•
Finally, I would remind you that a ,militruy solution is simply not possiblefor .Colo~bia. We
continue to call on .the F ARC to honor its commitments and enter into good faith negotiations
with the ·Colombian Government.
Is there concern about possible retaliatory violence by the drug traffickers following these
arrests, especially given the prospect of extradition to face U.S. justice?
·
•
All law enforcement operations against dangerous criminals involve a measure of risk,
including the possibility of retaliation against law1enforcement personnel or other targets.
•
This concern is certainly relevant in the present context, especially given drug traffickers'
well-documented willingness to use yiolence to achieve their ends.
'·
�•
All of the gover:nments involved in this operation are aware of this risk and are taking
appropriate security measures. I might.add that USG-supported counter-drug operations
have been regularly attacked in ·colombia, by guerrillas as well as narcos.
•
We have and w-ill continue to take the protection of U.S. citizens in Colombia, both official
and unofficial, 'very seriously. One of our preventative measures is the publication here in
this country of appropriate advisories for U.S. nationals abroad. For further information on
these advisories, please contact Consular Affairs at the Department of State.
•
Perhaps most importantly, I would note that our ongoing law enforcement operations will not
be deterred by the threat of violence. We will remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure
that drug traffickers are brought to justice, whether in the United States or other countries.
If the drug trade is a problem throughout the Andes, why is the package so heavily
weighted towards Colombia?
·
•
This package is a response to President Pastrana's Plan Colombia. Assistance is heavily
weighted toward Colombia bee
lombia is the source-of most ofthe cocaine used in the
United States.
nter~r-Pefi:HYld-.Bolivia ha-ve signifieanHy"!r:-eettduruc:te~eh~a--ea
· a ton and cocaine production. One side-effect of this reduction has been an
increase in leaf cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia.
•
In addition, counter-drug efforts in Colombia have been complicated by the participation in
the drug trade of well-armed guerrillas and paramilitaries, who protect narco-traffickers
across a broad swath of southern Colombia.
•
These factors, along with the effects of a recent devastating economic recession, have
hampered the ability of the GOC to effectively deal with the narcotics trafficking problem.
•
That said, we are recommending additional resources for existing programs in neighboring
countries to assist them as they tum from drug production. F·urther, we are requesting
funding in support of construction at a Forward Operating Location in Manta, Ecuador, to
allow for more effective regional efforts against drug trafficking by air. These two programs
taken together will help to counter the potential move of drug cultivation and ·production
back out of Colombia.
'
What makes you think this new support package will work when previous USG support to
Colombia seems to have had little effect on the drug flows? .
•
As our success in Peru and Bolivia demonstrates, it is possible to combat narcotics
production in the Andean region using a comprehensive and balanced approach. An
unfortunate side-effect ofthis success in Peru and Bolivia was a shift of coca cultivation and
cocaine production to Colombia. Because of this, we have concluded that a comprehensive
attack against illicit drug production and trafficking in Colombia is essential.
�.This package is our response. It will enable the GOC's counter-drug program to move into
the southern departments of Caqueta and J?utumayo, where the narcos have found a safehaven under guerrilla and paramilit
rotecti
A significant portion of this package is focused on military assistance. Are you shortchanging other components of Plan Colombia,, such as alternative development, anticorruption, etc.?
·
•
We are committing $240 million over the next two years to alternative'development,
enhancing good governance, judicial re.fi)rm, and human rights protection. This is in addition
to some $4 billion that the GOC is committing to Plah Colombia from its own resources.
e
Other donors, inciuding the
Institutions, are providing billions
. J_;
dollars in loans aimed primarily at social, humanitarian, and infrastructure development, s t
well as economic revitalization.
·
·
Internatio~al ~im.mcial
o~·
Why are the CNP receiving so much less than the Colombian military when the police have
·
the primary counter-drug responsibili~?
•
The Colombian National Police have no stronger supporters than the members ofthis
administration. Not only will they r~ceive some $95 miliion in direct counter-drug support in
this package, but they also were the primary GOC recipients of the FY 99 counter-drug
emergency supplemental.....: receiving at least $158 million in that package.
•
It must be understood that assistance to the Colombian military is designed specifically to
support the Colombian National Police law enforcement efforts by providing the Police with
protection from attacks by illegal
groups -whether guemllas, paramilitaries, or the
traffickers themselves- so that they can.complete their mission._ ·
;mea
.
.
.
.
•
We have been impressed with the way i[n which the Colombian military and nationalPolice
have begun to work together more effedively. ''General Tapias and Geneial Serrano are
committed to work hand-in-gloye as the enter ~he new, more dangerous'zones •.
'e
We believe that our assistance package is well-tailored to support the counter-drug strategy
that we and the Colombians believe will be much more effective and secure for both the
·police and the military.
What assurance do we have that this increased USG assistance will not lead to increased
human rights abuses?
•
In accordance with the Leahy Amendment, all U.S. assistance to the Colombian security
forces is contingent upon human rights. screening. No USG assistance can be provided to any
unit of the Colombian security forces against which there is evidence of gross human rights·
violations.
·
·
�•
In addition, the USG has and will continue to provide support to strengthen the human rights
.offices of the GOC as well as human rights organizations·.
·
What about allegations that the Colombian1 military is supporting paramil,itary groups that
have engaged in; human rights abuses?
•
We commend the Colombiangovernment's efforts to investigate cases of human rights
abuse, by paramilitary groups and others, and to prosecute the human rights abusers.
•
We encourage the Colombian government to redouble these efforts. Bringing to an end the
impunity enjoyed by~those who abuse hum~ rights is a critipal component of the peace
process.
What is.the USG doing to ensure that incr,eased assistance to the Co.iombian military
not go to those who abuse human rights?
wiH
•
U.S. law prohibits the provision of assist~mce or training to units of the Colombian military
against whom there are credible allegations of human pghts abuses.
•
Consistent with the law, the Administration carefully vets the recipients of all U.S. military
assistance and t~aining to ensure that our aid is not provided to human rights abusers.
•
We note that the Colombian military has one of the longest unbroken records of support for
democracy and civilian government in th1;: hemisphere. ·
·
Any response to recent reports of the danger faced by human rights advocates working in
Colombia?
•
The human rights stance of the goV,ernment and military has improved, but human rights
workers are more vulnerable than ever to the guerrillas and paramilitaries. We continue to
call on the paramilitaries, the FARC, and other guerrilla groups to respect international
human rights norms and to cease the practice of kidnapping.
·
•
A key element of our Colompia policy is strict adherence to Leahy and other human-rightsrelated provisions governing our security assistance. ·
·
•
We are also actively promoting and assisting the development of a national human rights
policy; working with the Colombian Vice: President's Office, as well as providing human
rights-related training and assistance to the Colombian military and the human rights
ombudsman. We ·also support enhanced protection for human rights monitors in Colombia.
•
Our support for the Colombian peace pro~c~ss is in part premised on the idea that a negotiated
settlement is ultimately the best guarantee for human rights.
'
'
�What i~pact will tJ;Iis package likely have on the Colombian peace proc,ess?
.
.
•
This package will provide support to help train GOC negotiators and advisors on managing
conflict
negotiations. Training will draw on the lessons learned in Northern Ireland, the
Middle East, and Central America.· The training will also examine the techniques for
reintegrating ex-combatants into civil society. A public diplomacy campaign will engage
civil society and seek their support for all aspects of Plan Colombia. ·
•
Also important, the package will send a strong message to Colombia's guerrillas that
meaningful negotiations offer the best hope for p'eace and social justice. They can hope to
win neither military victory nor. political advant.age_thruugh_violenc.e. _ _ __
and
inally, we believe that to the extent that Plan Colombia reinvigorates the Colombian
economy, enhances GOC governing capability, discourages human rights abuses, and
reduces the money available to guerrillas and panimilitaries from involvement in drug
trafficking, it will encourag~ the peace p~
'
How is the Colombia peace process going'?
•
Progress remains slow, but this importantinitiative:is continuing.
•
We strongly support President Pastrana's efforts to broker a negotiated settlement to.end
. Colombia's civil conflict. He was electe:d on a peace platform and won by the widest margin
. of victory in recent Colombian history. We believe the peace process is the best way to end
Colombia's long-running conflict.
•
We also remain convinced that the peac~: process is also integral to long-run prospects for .
:fighting narcotics trafficking, reducing kidnappings, restoring 'respect for human rights, and
putting the Colombian economy back on a sustainable, high-growth trajectory.
•
We never expected that a peace settlement with the guerrilla groupscould be achieved
quickly. Lessons from similar disputes elsewhere suggestthat the start-up phase of talks is
particularly prone to yiolence as groups position themselves for the negotiations.
I
What about criticisms that Pastrana is pUirsuing a mistaken peace strategy and giving up
' too much to the FARC for too little?·
•
We remain convinced that a negotiated settlement is the best way to end Colombia's longrunning conflict. A purely military solution is simply not viable, given Colombia's vast size, .
the limited infrastructure in its interior, and tlie complex factors that haveallowed a guerrilla
presence for two generations. · · ·
·
•
Howeyer, for the peace process to succeed, all parties must participate fully and in good
faith. We regret that the F ARC engages in attacks that result in civilian casu~lties.
�•
The GOC has worked hard to find formulations acceptable to both sides. In our view, the
peace process in Colombia has to be broader than the issue of talking with any single
guerrilla group, however significan~. that group is. President Pastrana and his team have set
the peace table with a generous scope for negotiations. We encourage the FARC to sit down
·
at that table and partake in a·serious ~ean:h for peace.
•
Starting a peace process in: a country that has suffered 40 years of civil confl·
35,000 dead in the past decade alone is not easy..
e
expect the Colombian
. - government will aehieve a peace settlemen wtt4 the guerrilla groups quickly. Lessons from
"milar disputes elsewhere suggest that the start-up phase of talks is particularly prone to
lengthy delays and setbacks - and sometimes by unexpected breakthroughs.
Are we moving to support of GOC counter-insurgency efforts?
•
No. U.S. policy is not shifting from cooperating with the Colombians on the regional
counter-drug fight to assisting their counter-insurgency efforts. As President Clinton has
stated clearly, our policy in Colombia is to support President Pastrana's efforts to find a
peaceful resolution to the country's longstanding civil conflict and to work with the
Colombians - along with our other regional partners - on fighting illicit drugs.
•
A military solution is simply not possible for Colombia. We continue to call on the FARC to
honor its commitments and enter into good faith negotiations with th~ Colombian
Governn1ent.
·
. What about fears that the FARC's strengJthis_gr.o_wing militaril.,..·?_._ _ __
The insurgency has been going on for 40 years. We see no evidence that either side has
wherewithal to settle the civil conflict militarily.
·
•
That is why we continue to believe that the best way to promote our interest in a stable
Colombia is to back President Pastrana's·efforts to reach a negotiated settlement.
Will you intervene militarily. if things con1tinue to deteriorate - this country at least is in our
hemisphere?
•
We are aggressively supporting the. GOC in its fight against drugs. In addition to providing
financial assistance, we are trained special co~nter-drug military units to enhance Colombia's
ability to conduct eradication and lab destruction operations.
•
As for the insurgency,' agai:t;1let's remember that it has been going on for 40 years and there
is no expedient military soltition. We ·believe that the best way to promote our interest i.n a
stable Colombia is to back President Pastrana's ~fforts to reach a negotiated settlement.
•
Let me also reiterate the distinction between counter-drug and counter-insurgency assistance.
Tlie USG.does not intend to provide counter-insurg~ncy aid to the GOC. Any support to the
Colombian military will continue to be focused on the common counter-drug objective and
�wili be given only to units that have been vetted to ensure thadhey have not been responsible
, for human rights abuses.
·
.
•
Greater progress is necessary in countering the production and distribution of illicit drugs in
Colombia, both to diminish the revenue available to the guerrillas and to pro_tect counter-drug
successes elsewhere in the region. However, there is a distinction between counter-drug and
counter-insurgency, and the USG does not intend· to provide counter-insurgency aid to the
GOC.
What assurances will we have that the paramilitaries do not become the ultimate
, beneficiaries of the inc-reased USG assista.nce to the Colombian military?
•
In accordance with U.S. law, all assistance to the Colombian armed forces is contingent upon·
human rights screening. No USG assistance is being prqvided to any unit of the Colombian
military for which there is credible evidence of gross human rights violations by its members.
None will be provided to such units, unless, as required by U.S: law, the Secretary of State
determines that the GOC is taking steps to bring those re.spo.nsible for gross human rights
violations to justice.
•
The Colombian military has markedly improv.ed its human rights performance in recent
years. Unfortunately, at the same time, the number of abuses committed by the guerrillas .
and, particularly, by the paramilitaries has increased markedly.
·
•
We have urged the GOC to take effective steps to end abuses and impunity within the armed
forces. We welcomed President Pastrana's decisions in 1999 to retire four generals linked to
paramilitary groups, and statements by President Pastrana and top military officials that they
would not tolerate collaboration w:ith the paramilitaries.
Is any component of this package desigm~d to help the Colombian military go·afterthe
paramilitaries?
-
•
.
This package is aimed at enhancing the GOC's ability to combat both drug trafficking and
human rights abuses. It will reduce the abilities of the paramilitaries· to engage in these
illegal activities.
·
Did Operation Millennium play a role in the U.S. decision to increase support for GOC?
•
We are very pleased and encouraged by the results from Operation Millennium.
•
This was a recent large-scale international operation in which law enforcement authorities in
Colombia, Mexico and the United States worked closely together to identify and then arrest
'major cocaine traffickers centered in Colombia who have been shipping. huge quantities of
illicit drugs to the United States.
•
We believe the operation is a model forthe kind of multilateral cooperation, including the
possibility of appropriate extraditions, that will be increasingly essential ifresponsible
�governments everywhere are to make substantial further progress· against illicit drug
trafficking.
·
•
While Operation Millennium was not the trigger for the U.S. decision to increase assistance,
the initiative did demonstrate what the GOC is capable of achieving against the drug .
traffickers with appropriate USG assistance.
\
�•' ..
/
�______
.......____
Theme 1: Colombia Matters to Us
•
Illegal drugs cost our society as many as 52,000 dead and nearly $1 tO billion dollars
each year, by some estimates, due to heal~h costs~ accidents, and lost productivity.
•
If left unchecked, rapid expansion of drug production in Colombia will significantly
increase the global supply of cocaine. Cheap and easily obtainable drugs will likely
undercut the progress of our successful demand reduction programs. ·
•
..;...)
Beyond the drug realm, Colombia's civil conflict, with rising violence and
· kidnappings, has tragically affected Colombian lives as well as those of U:S.
nationals there. More than 35,000 lives have been lost and an estimated one million
persons internally displ(=!ced in the past decade alone.
Theme 2: We Know How to Counter 1the Drug Threat
•
The impressive successes of regional counter-(Jrug efforts in Peru and Bolivia show
what can be done with an integrated strategy. Ev
e ac ors 1n e
1n re
1a, otal potential cocaine production has been
reduced 18 percent over the pastfivE~ years.
•
But, to make further gains a ainst cocaine and Colombian heroin -- and to avoid
future setbac --we need t~ help the GOC beef up its counter-drug capaBilitie-s~
•
PresidentPastrana is willing to work with us against drugs, but his government
needs our support to train and equip counter-drug battalions and enhance its drug
interdiction capabilities.
•
Funding delays are slowing the progress getting the counter-drug battalions stood
up- putting more drugs on our streets and adding to the long-run costs.
Theme 3: This ·s ..ore than a Counter-drug Plan ·
•
Our Colombia package contains a more than 10-fold increase in funds for altenra ·
development, good governance, ·ustiice-sector reform, and human rights protection.
· IS· e max1
m a can be absorbe 1n the nex
mon s · en
security
situation in the south (where much of the aid is needed) and the management and
oversight requirements associated with this major undertaking ..
\
•
A central goal of our Colombia initiative is to promote and protect human rights.
�-------------------.
·2
I
•
The Pastrana Administration is committed to improving Colombia's human rights
record. Our annual human rights report has documented a steadily declining
number of reported human rights violations by the Colombian military;
•
President Pastrana has stated repeatedly that he will not.tolerafe collaboration, by
commission or omission,- between security force members and paramilitaries. He
has backed this up with_direct action, removing from service last year four generals
and numerous mid-level officers for links to the paramilitaries or for failure to
confront them aggressively.
-
•
In accordance with U.S. law, as embodied in the Leahy Amendment, all assistance
.to the Colombian armed forces is contingent upon human rights screening.
•
Our initiative would fund training for human rights NGOs, government investigators,
and prosecutors, including a specialized human rights task force. We are actively
promoting and assisting the development of a national human rights policy. We also
support enhanced security protection for hu~an rights monitors in Colombia.
.
'
Our policy is also to support President Pastrana's efforts to fina-a pea-cefarresofation
to the country's longstanding civil conflict. We fully recognize that progress in
resolving Colombia's civil conflict would make su'stained progress much easier on all
other fronts -- reducing drug supply, protecting human rights, and promoting
·
democracy an,d economic development.
~believe st~ongly that our assis~ance will help C~lombia reinvigorate its ec
(
· y,
enhance it~ governing capability, discou~~ge_ human ~ights abuse~, and redu~e t~e
money available to guernllas and param1l1tanes from Involvement 1n drug traff1ck1ng.
As such, the plan represents the best chance to promote real progress in the peace
process.
·
•
Of course, we expect the peace process to continue to be marked by breakthroughs
and setbacks. It may take ~any years.
•
Pastrana and his team have set the peace table with a. generous scope for
negotiations. I encourage the FARC and ELN to sit down at that table and .partake
in a serious search for peace. I can't vouch yet for their sincerity, but many
successful p~ace processes around the world have resulted from talks that one or
both sides initially approached with a hidden agenda.
I
�'
3
Theme 4: There is No Slippery Slope
•
Our support to the Colombian military is aimed specifically at reducing the supply of
illicit drugs. This is a goal shared by the entire international community.
•
Our military assistance will be limited to training vetted counter-drug units throu
tRe temporary assignment of carefuTI;y 1c e
providin
intelligence and logistics support directly relate o the counter-drug mission, .
including force protection. We do not believe that a purely m1htary solution 1s
workable for Colombia.
•
The U.S. military presence wilr be minimal, monitored, and transparent. We will keep
the U.S. "footprint" on the ground as small and well-protected as possible, consistent
with the mission. U.S. military personnel will not be deploying out into the jungle
along with police and ColoiT)bian Army to conduct the lab destruction and other law
enforcement operations.
•
We understand that Colombia's multiple problems can only be solved by the
I be one of support for C
Colombians themselves. The U.S. ro
own effo..rts. President Pastrana has the will and commitment to address Colombia's
problems. He deserves our support in meeting these challenges.
--
�I
.. -1-
=--p-~--~~-A-.-----
--
-
~
~"-~~-----
-l-
.
~~--------
----=---~~~' =-~---~~~--~-
--= ----~-:r~ ~--.- - - - - - - -·- ·- - - - - - - - =--~ -~-~~~J'p-n .-q_ ~~~--====---=~~_,_ _
----------·----=-----A-----L--~-- ~'-~
()1-_C~J:.___ T__________
':Ia-·
_0____
'
· - - - - - - - - - - - -..--
-----
7---
-------- ·-
·-----,-------------l-----------------,....------------------=---1 · - - - -
--····-----------·------------ -~f~---------'---
�----··---··--- - k1-'J~---~~~- - - - - t;C=
--·---~~..
-··----·--
------------~0-
-----~
1~~-------.
---.
~--~~ ~----:__
-··-··------·-·-
·--~-=--..---------:---P-'-4~~~-h ~-=-~-~
----'--¥----~-~·;~-~~-
. L--~--+-'··-.---~----:---------·
...
-----·--·-----
-----+1-
·----
·-----··------
�-- - - - - - - -
~~~---==-~~-~~~~n--==~~----- ---~~~-~
___ ~- - - - -
-----------------------~
··------·----·--------------------··:·-------·--------------
-
'
-~--'
. . . ------------k~---~
.
-------.______________________lttt_(J_~ ~ J_d_Jik - - -------
-7~-~----
_-:______________
------·-
��I
,.
-.----..
--~-~---------~----~-- JJJ-~. ~_1L__-_------------=~~
·······--···-------~---lfu-~~b~. ·-
-----------------------
···-----------
-··------
-------------~'-V-l--1--+JA/1111-UJ/J--•~-
r
-- ·--~-1~--nwi;-~-
��\
------------·- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + - - -
·-···--·----'---------·- - - - - - - - - - -
�------
-- --------
-~----~------------r--_jihM 10~------·'
--··-·-----
:·---~~___-----{)~- ' - --------- .-~~~() -jq_-L
(:j--£i-L+-'L- ---·
---
_______________
n .4 ;,...,_ I _ .
':
----~v_Y-~
_,___
--CJJ1-
Oc~.-
�--·------
-----··-----
·t-------
- - - __ .. __
....
,
_,
..
· - - - - - - - ·------------ .. --·
······~-
-------------
-··------------··-··-~----------·--------
----------------.----
.:;.....
·-------------------
·-··-----------------------
,
�-------~----
-
-
--·---- - - - - · - - - - - - - - · - - · - · · - - - - - - - - - -
-----------!----'-.
---------------
·-·----------------------
-t---------'-~--------
�-+--.:____-j---------··
\1}(
Jruur[p - - - - -"-,.-poL-L-~~~
- -
(ii;J-~·~ ~~~ . ...,..-------·--·-- ~~-=-- . . . ~'M-,___--~\
A
~--
.
----
_______,_-----·--·-··-~--I
-
---~~----~---~~-.·-_- -~-~ .
--------------
--
-------··---
·-···---------~~---···----------------·---
--·--·~
---~
··--·---
·-------·---·---- ..
I
.
-------·------------
--------------~-------·-
______
-=====.-=:.=.::~::..-:-.:~.:::::::--
·-----------···
·-~
.... --·--------··~- - - 1 - -
-----· --·-··----------
-----··-·------·
�- - - - ---11-------1'--
•
---------
··--·--··--------------------------
_
....... _. -·--
.. ---···--
-------·-------..-·-----.. - -..
----------------·---------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - · - .. --. ««·-···----- . ··
·- .. ---------·-·-----------------
·-----------·--------·-··-.. ---.. ---- ..------
- - - - - ·--+--------------------·-·-·--1----------------·--··-··------.. ------------------------------+-------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - · - - 1 1 - - - - - - - - : - - - - · - - - - - - - - - - - - · · - · -..--·-·
... ___________________________
,____ff.'~....,.,.,__-------·-------·-·-··--·-··-
.-
�Why Colomlbia? Why Now?
On March 30; the House passed an emergency supplemental appropriations request that_
included funding to support the Administration's Colombia initiative. The 263-146 vote was a
welcome endorsement of a policy designed to get illegal drugs off of America's streets and to
strengthen democracy and human rights in Colombia. As-the Senate considers the proposal, we
want to address the key issues regarding this initiative.
First, this initiative is absolutely necessary. There is a drug emergency going on in_
Colombia, and it has serious implications for the safety and well-being of our comniunities.
· 'ety percent of the cocaine on our streets and two-thirds of the heroin seized in the United
States originates in or transits Colombia. .Each year drugs kill 52,000 Americans, almost as
many as died in Vietnam or in Korea, and cost over $110 billion in accidents, lost productivity,
and property damage.· At the same time, Colombia's democracy, human rights sitll.ation, and
economy have deteriorated as illegal armed groups on the left and the right finance their military
campaigns off proceeds from the drug trade. Democracy. in Latin .America needs to be
rengthened, not undermined,. even as we protect our own citizens from drugs. Colombia is also
an important trading partner and supplier of crude oil to the US. Two-way trade reached nearly
. $11 billion in 1998.
Peru and Bolivia have achieved dramatic reductions of more than 50% in their· coca .
cultivation over the last five years, and overalll cocaine production in the region has fallen 18%.
But this progress is threatened because cocaine production in Colombia has risen 126% and
continues to expand. We have a strategic opportunity to change that. Leaders in all three
countries are strongly committed to attacking the drug trade_ on all fronts. Offering this
assistance now could lead to lasting progress against the supply of drugs.
Concerns that Colombia could turn into another Vietnam are unfounded. Vietnam was a
full-blown civil war. In Colombia, public support for the guerrillas and the paramilitary forces is
running at abo~ The fighting drags· on despite public opposition because the drug
trade is fuelingtne guerrillas and paramilitary groups. The potential effectiveness of our
countemarcotics assistance has not been lost on Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the FARC,
which has called on the U.S. Senate to reject the Colombia Initiative. Moreover, as military and·
diplomatic veterans of every U.S. conflict from Vietnam to the present, we firmly believe the
American people and government :will not make the mistake of allowing U.S. combat forces to
· become involved in Colombia's internal conflict.
·
This is not just a military assistance program. Indeed, one of the reasons we are so
impressed with the Colombian government's plan is that it addresses the full range of challenges
facing that country, including the peace process, the drug trade, democracy and human rights, the
judiciary, and the economy. Plan Colombia also draws on the contributions, advice, and
experiences of many other countries. Most ~fthe plan's $7.5 billion outlay will be for nonmilitary programs. Colombia will supply $4 billion, I_ntemational Financial Institutions already
have provided more than $1 billion, the US is proposing $1.6 billion, and Colombia is
_.,.
approaching the Europeans and others for further help.
�Many ask why a large proportion of the: U.S. contribution will be for military equipment.·
We are employing an approach that has worked in other countries, namely, combining alternative
development, drug eradication, law enforcement, assistance in controlling national territory, and
protection of police forces .. Some of these tasks require military equipment, which the U.S. is
uniquely capable of supplying. However, it is worth repeating that the bulk of Plan Colombia is
for non-military programs, and that US assistance will be used in other ways, too, such as
improving Colombia's human rights performance and strengthening judicial institutions, helping
displaced people, providing economic alternatives for small farmers, and improving
environmental management of protected areas. ·
The package also provides significant support in the areas of peace and human rights.
We are directly supporting human rights initiatives, including an "early warning system" by
which human rights organizations in the field can inform the government of potential abuses.
We also are helping to protect human rights workers and to provide htiman rights training to
government investigators and prosecutors. In. addition, all assistance to Colombia's security ·
forces is contingent ~pon human rights ·screening, in accordance with U.S. law and policy. We .
are also encouraging all Colombians to join in a serious search for peace. Our counternarcotics
efforts will assist the peace process by cutting off the f:unds these illegal groups use to buy arms
and support themselves.
Now is the time to act. We are at a rar<~ moment. Although problems in Colombia have
escalated, a government is in office that has a eomprehensive plan to address the situation in a
process that has serious support from its citizens. This is the best chance we have had to inflict
real damage on the drug supply flowing to our shores. It is also our best chance to help
Colombia strengthen its democracy, find peace, and repair its economy. Our proposed package
will be an important complement to the $6 billion the U.S. Government will spend on demand
reduction efforts in the United States, and the $1.9 billion we spend on interdicting drugs. As
long-standing friends and neighbors of a democratic Colombia, we owe it to our children and
theirs to invest in Colombia's future. Ifs an investment in our own.
r
Barry R. McCaffrey
Director
Office ofNational Drug Control Policy
Thomas R. Pickering
Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs
�,.
·(
Advancing democracy and diplomacy as key elements of national security policy
1. At the heart of the new security agenda lie challenges that all nations face together and no
nation can solve on its own.
2. Our efforts to fight terrorism, drugs, corruption, disease, nuclear proliferation -- all depend
on the cooperation of our partners.
3. The strength of our partners' cooperation depends to a very large extent on the strength of
their democracies.
4. Democracies are less likely to fight wars against each other, more likely to' be stable and
prosperous, more likely to be good trading partners, more likely to cooperate on security
issues, honor international commitments, protect the environment, fight disease.
5. A common commitment to democracy is the most enduring, most binding element in the
alliance of nations. (NATO is the longest·· lived military alliance since ancient Greece
because of the common value of democracy.)
6. We must make the spread of democracy an integral element of our national security agenda.
It will make it easier to achieve our objectives both the classic agenda --limiting war and
promoting peace among. sovereign states -- and the new agenda -- fighting transnational
threats such as terrorism, drugs, crime and corruption, environmental degradation, and the
spread of weapons of mass destruction. ·
·
7. That means we must support economic freedom, stand up for human rights, help countries in
transition build the institutions of democraey -- free elections, free enterprise, free trade, free
speech, .free press, rule of law, NGOs, etc.
8. (Highlight directly or by inference-- VP's work on binational commissions to help
democracies in transition; speech in Malaysia; criticizing China's record on human rights to
Zhu in Washington; calling for fair treatment ofBabitsky; the fact that under Clinton/Gore,
for the first time in history, more people lived under democracies than dictatorships.)
9. The growth of democracy is not something that can be achieved with a strong military; it
must be advanced through strong diplomacy ... in partnership with other nations -- through
constant; patient, persistent persuasion-- by means of treaties, alliances, multinational
organizations; by funding and deploying the full dip.lomatic force of the United States. ·
•
Attack record of Republicans on foreign affairs: blocking treaties, stiffing multilateral
organizations, defunding diplomacy, indifference to democracy.
•
Set forth proposals that make the birth and growth of democracies an integral element of
U.S. national security policy. (See Max Kempelman op-ed).
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Speechwriting Office - Thomas Rosshirt
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Security Council
Speechwriting Office
Thomas Rosshirt
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1999-2001
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36327" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7585792" target="_blank">National Archives Collection Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2008-0703-F
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Rosshirt prepared speech remarks delivered by President William J. Clinton and National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger between 1999 and 2001.</p>
<p>Rosshirt’s speechwriting efforts for President Clinton concerned the President’s trip to Vietnam; remarks at the Memorial Day Ceremony in Arlington, Virginia; remarks at Camp Foster Marine Base in Okinawa; remarks at the Council of the Americas 30th Washington Conference; the debt cancellation announcement for Jubilee2000; the Armed Forces Farewell at Fort Myer, Virginia; remarks to the Israeli Policy Forum; and awarding the Medal of Honor to both former President Theodore Roosevelt and to Captain Ed W. Freeman. Rosshirt’s speechwriting efforts also included National Security Advisor Berger’s remarks at Tel Aviv University and an article concerning Saddam Hussein.</p>
<p>This collection was made available through a <a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/freedom-of-information-act-requests">Freedom of Information Act</a> request.</p>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
51 folders in 5 boxes
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
American Council [1]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Security Council
Speechwriting Office
Thomas Rosshirt
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2008-0703-F
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 1
<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2008/2008-0703-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7585792" target="_blank">National Archives Collection Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Medium
The material or physical carrier of the resource.
Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
5/13/2014
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
42-t-7585792-20080703f-001-001-2014
7585792