THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060419
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
The Pentagon's No. 2 civilian took President Clinton's plea for public support for the Bosnia peace mission to the Peninsula Tuesday, saying that America's leadership is vital to the success of the plan.
``We think it is very important to provide the American people with what our rationale is and why we think this makes a lot of sense,'' Deputy Defense Secretary John P. White told a Peninsula Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
White, a former Marine Corps officer and budget official during the Carter administration, became the No. 2 civilian defense official in June. He previously served as director of the Center for Business and Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Already scheduled for a briefing by the Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base Tuesday, White said he decided the chamber luncheon would be a good forum to push for support for the upcoming operation.
Clinton plans to send 20,000 to 32,000 American troops to Bosnia to become part of a 60,000-member NATO force that would spend the next year trying to keep the peace in a country that has been at war for four years.
While an Associated Press poll shows Americans are opposed to the mission by nearly a 2-1 margin, White said it is his sense that the American public is beginning to understand the need for U.S. involvement.
``It has been a hard sell because for 50 years we have been used to a relatively simple model where we had this large (Soviet) threat and we didn't really have to focus on anything but that,'' he said.
``That has all changed. The world is still a dangerous place, as demonstrated in Bosnia, and therefore it is more complicated. It takes more effort to explain what we are trying to do.''
White ruled out, for now, any direct involvement by Langley fighter squadrons or Fort Eustis Transportation Center troops in the Bosnia mission, saying that the Norfolk-based carrier America will remain a force in the Adriatic Sea.
He also acknowledged the mission is not without risk.
``This is something we fully recognize,'' he said. ``But it is a commitment by all NATO-member countries, plus a dozen other European nations.''
The rules of engagement are ``very clear,'' he said. American troops know they can return hostile fire without getting permission up the line.
It will be an American-run operation, with even officers within the participating Russian brigade reporting to U.S. commanders.
American leadership in the mission is fundamental to its success, he said.
``If we do not have American leadership for this force, we will not have a force,'' he said. ``The Europeans have, unfortunately, displayed in almost four years that they alone are not able to provide what is needed.
``Will it be risky? Yes.
``But in reality, it is the best opportunity we have had since this started.''
If the cease-fire breaks down and the warring factions decide to resume hostilities, ``we have told them we are leaving.''
KEYWORDS: OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR BOSNIA U.S. MILITARY by CNB