Excerpts From President Clinton's
First Post-Election News Conference
NOVEMBER 9,1996
Q. Mr. President, the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement was the foreign-policy pinnacle of your first term. as you seek a
Secretary of State, will the first and fore most quality you look for in someone, be the person who can get that process back on track?
A. Well, the short answer to your question is that will be one thing I look for, and that is one of the most important things that happened in the last four years.
Continued reductlon of our nuclear arsenals, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, the indefinite extension of the Nonproliferation Treaty, the end of-stopping the North Korean nuclear program; all those things amount--- they count for a lot, as well.
But if you look ahead, here's what I want a Secretary of State to do: Number one, to continue our efforts to build the first undivided democratic Europe in History, which means to effect the NATO expansion, working with the Secretary of Defense, in a way that is---- and solidifies our partnership with a democratic Russia, instead of undermining it; number two, to continue to be a force for peace in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland, working through the process in Bosnia and elsewhere; number three, To meet the new security threats of terrorism
and organized crime and drug running, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and sophisticated traditional
weapons; and then to take advantage of the extraordinary economic opportunities for the United States in building a global economlc structure that is increasingly more open and fair, that will stabilize the rest of the world, and help America's prosperity to continue.
I don't think there's any way to---- we don't have any scientific studies of this, but there's probably no way to calculate the enormous positive impact that the dramatic
expansion of trade in the last four years has had on the changing mix of the new jobs In America. Over half of the new jobs, our 10.5 million, 10.7 million new jobs, have come in high-wage areas. There's no question that one big reason is the disciplined, organized, integrated efforts that have been made in
the private and public sectors to expand trade.
So I want a Secretary of State that can do all that. I guess that means I want a magician.
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