Bill Clinton’s speech to the American Nation on the attack on Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999, transcribed by CNN 26 years ago

My American people, today our armed forces, joined our NATO allies in the air strikes against Serbian forces responsible for brutality in Kosovo. We have acted firmly for several reasons.

We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a growing military offensive.

We act to prevent a wider war, to deactivate a barrel of gunpowder in the heart of Europe, which has exploded twice in this century with catastrophic results.

We act to stay united with our allies for peace. By acting now, we are supporting our values, defending our interests and advancing the cause of peace.

Tonight I want to talk to you about the tragedy in Kosovo and why it is important for America to work with our allies to end it.

First, let me explain what we are answering. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, in the middle of Southeast Europe and about 160 miles east of Italy. This is less than the distance between Washington and New York, and just about 70 miles north of Greece.

Its people are mostly ethnic and Muslim Albanians.

In 1989, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, the same leader who began the wars in Bosnia and Croatia and moved against Slovenia in the last decade, abolished Kosovo’s constitutional autonomy, thus denying their right to speak their language, to direct their schools. For years, Kosovars fought peacefully to return their rights. When President Milosevic sent his troops and police to oppress them, the war became violent.

Last fall, our diplomacy, backed by the threat of force by our NATO alliance, banned the fighting for a while and saved tens of thousands of people from freezing and hunger in the hills where they had escaped to save their lives. And last month, with our allies and Russia, we proposed a peace deal to end the fighting for good. Kosovar leaders signed that agreement last week.

Although they do not give them all they want, even though their people were still wild, they saw that a right peace is better than a long and uninvited war.

Serbian leaders, on the other hand, refused to even discuss the main elements of the Peace Agreement. While Kosovars were saying to peace, Serbia placed 40,000 troops inside and around Kosovo in preparation for a large offensive and in a clear violation of the commitments they had taken.

Now they have begun moving from village to village, bombing civilians and burning their homes. We have seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the mud and sprinkled with bullets. Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and boys together, lined up and shot coldly. This is not war in the traditional sense. It is an attack of tanks and artillery on a predominantly vulnerable people whose leaders have already agreed on peace.

The conclusion of this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important for America’s national interests. Take a look at this map. Kosovo is a small country, but it is in a large line between Europe, Asia and the Middle East, in the site of Islam and both Western and Orthodox branches of Christianity.

In the south are our allies, Greece and Turkey. In the north, our new democratic allies in Central Europe. And across Kosovo, there are other small countries that are struggling with their economic and political challenges, countries that can be overthrown by a large wave of refugees from Kosovo.

All the ingredients for a great war are there. Ancient complaints, democracies that fight and at the center of all, a dictator in Serbia who has done nothing since the end of the Cold War, but has launched new wars and has poured gasoline in the flames of ethnic and religious division.

Sarajevo, the capital of neighboring Bosnia, is the place where World War I began. World War II and the Holocaust swept this region. In both wars, Europe was slow to recognize risks, and the United States waited even longer to enter conflicts. Just imagine if the then leaders would have acted wisely and early, how many lives could they have been saved? How many Americans shouldn’t have to die?

We learned some of the same lessons in Bosnia just a few years ago. The world did not act as early as to stop that war. And let’s not forget what happened. Innocent people gathered in concentration camps, children killed by snipers on the way to school, football fields and parks returned to the cemetery. A quarter of million people were killed, not because of anything they had done, but because of what they were. Two million Bosniaks became refugees.

This was genocide in the heart of Europe, not in 1945, but in 1995. Not in any news of our parents and grandparents, but in our time, testing our humanity and determination.

At that time, many people believed that nothing could be done to end the bleeding in Bosnia. They said, ”

Today, we and our 18 NATO allies agreed to do what we have said we will do, what we must do to restore peace. Our mission is clear-to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO’s goal so that Serbian leaders understand the imperative of changing the course, to prevent an even more bloody offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo and, if necessary, to seriously damage the capacity of the Serbian army that is being used to massacre the people of Kosovo.

In short, if President Milosevic does not make peace, we will limit his ability to fight.

Now I want to be clear to you, there are dangers in this military action – a danger to our pilots and people on the ground. Serbia’s air defense is strong. It may decide to intensify its attack on Kosovo, or seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere. If it happens, we will give a powerful answer.

Hopefully Mr. Milosevic will realize that his current course is self -destructive and unstable. If he decides to accept the peace agreement and demilitarize Kosovo, NATO has agreed to help its implementation with a peacekeeping force.

If NATO is invited to do so, our troops must participate in that mission to maintain peace, but I have no intention of putting our troops in Kosovo to fight.

Do our interests justify our interests in Kosovo the dangers of our Armed Forces? I thought long and a lot about this question. I am convinced that the dangers of acting are much greater than the dangers of inaction – dangerous to vulnerable people and for our national interests.

If we and our allies would allow this war to continue unanswered, President Milosevic would read our hesitation as permission to kill. There would be many massacres, tens of thousands of refugees, victims who would cry for revenge. For now, our determination is the only hope that the people of Kosovo must be able to live in their country, without fear of their lives.

Remember, we asked them to accept peace and they accepted it. We asked them to promise that they would surrender the weapons and they agreed. We pledged that we, the United States and the other 18 NATO countries, would be behind them if they did the right thing. We can’t disappoint them now.

Imagine what would happen if we and our allies instead we would decide to look at the other side as these people were massacred on the NATO threshold. This would discredit NATO, the cornerstone on which our security has remained for 50 years now.

We must also remember that this is a conflict without national natural boundaries. Let me ask you to see a map again. The red spots are the cities that the Serbs attacked. The arrows indicate the movement of refugees in the north, east and south. Now this movement is threatening the new democracy in Macedonia, which has its Albanian and Turkish minority.

Already, Serbian forces have made attacks in Albania from which Kosovars have received support. Albania has a Greek minority. Let a fire burn here in this area and the flames will spread.

Eventually, the US key allies can withdraw in a wider conflict-a war we would be forced to afford later, only at much greater risk and greater cost.

I have the responsibility as president to deal with such problems before always hurting our national interests. America has the responsibility to stay with our allies when they try to save innocent lives and maintain peace, freedom and stability in Europe. This is what we are doing in Kosovo.

If we have learned something from the end of the century, is that if America is prosperous and secure, we need a Europe that is prosperous, safe, inseparable and free.

We need a Europe that is joining, not being shattered. A Europe that shares our values ​​and shares the burden of leadership. This is the foundation on which the safety of our children will depend. That is why I have supported Europe’s political and economic union. That is why we introduced Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to NATO and redefined its mission. And contacted Russia and Ukraine for new partnerships.

Now what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, safe, united and sustainable Europe? The challenge of strengthening a partnership with a democratic Russia, which despite our disputes, is a constructive partner in the work of building peace. The challenge of resolving tensions between Greece and Turkey and building bridges with the Islamic world.

And finally, the challenge to put an end to instability in the Balkans, so that these bitter ethnic problems in Europe are resolved by the force of argument, not by the strength of the bombs. I know that future generations of Americans should not pass the Atlantic to fight another terrible war. It is this challenge that we and our allies in Kosovo are facing.

That is why we have acted now – because we take care of saving innocent lives, because we have an interest in avoiding an even more cruel and costly war and because our children need and deserve a peaceful, sustainable and free Europe.

Our thoughts and prayers tonight should be with the men and women of our armed forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our values ​​and the future of our children.

God bless them and God bless America.

Prepared by: Albert Vataj / KJ

https://edition.cnn.com/allpolitics/stories/1999/03/25/clinton.transcript/