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- <text id=93TT1665>
- <title>
- May 10, 1993: Clinton Faces the Bosnian "Brute"
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- May 10, 1993 Ascent of a Woman: Hillary Clinton
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- NATION, Page 21
- Clinton Faces the Bosnian "Brute"
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> The issue had been described by an aide as "A brute," and
- for a week Bill Clinton marched the brute around Washington for
- all to see. Only after the public viewing did he undertake to
- decide what to do about his most vexing foreign policy problem.
- </p>
- <p> Action seemed imperative. The Bosnian Serbs had turned
- down the Vance-Owen peace plan and laid siege to a new brace of
- Muslim towns. Boris Yeltsin, his referendum victory safe,
- announced he would no longer shield the Serbs indiscriminately
- from "the will of the world." Former Secretary of State George
- Shultz, among others, counseled military force. People compared
- the Serbian aggression to the Holocaust, thus suggesting that
- intervention was a moral necessity. Meanwhile, Clinton
- consulted. Dozens of members of Congress, eyeing polls that said
- only 30% of the public supported air strikes, rejected the
- Holocaust comparison for one to the Vietnam quagmire. Others
- disagreed. The military's top brass debated publicly whether
- strikes, arming the Bosnians, or the creation of "safe havens"
- would work--or lead to civilian deaths and American
- casualties. And suddenly the Serbs announced they would
- reconsider Vance-Owen--while asking for territorial
- concessions. But on Saturday the Administration came to a
- decision anyway. It will remain private until Secretary of State
- Warren Christopher can finish consultations in Western Europe
- and Russia. That may be all the time the Serbs have to make the
- decision moot.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-