Sunday, May 2, 2010 - I had seen it in the faces of the massive crowds...
I had seen it in the faces of the massive crowds in the cities, in those of the schoolchildren and villagers in the bush and on the edge of the desertAnd Africa had given me a great gift: in the wisdom of a Rwandan widow and of Nelson Mandela, I had found more peace of mind to face what lay ahead
On April 1, while we were still in Senegal, Judge Wright granted my lawyers motion for a summary judgment in the Jones case, dismissing it without a trial, because she found that Jones had produced no credible evidence to support her claimThe dismissal exposed the raw political nature of Starrs investigationNow he was pursuing me on the theory that I had given a false statement in a deposition the judge had said was not relevant, and that I had obstructed justice in a case that had no merit in the first placeNo one was even talking about Whitewater anymoreOn April 2, to no ones surprise, Starr said he would press on
A few days later Bob Rubin and I announced that the United States would block the importation of 1 million assault weaponsAlthough we had banned the manufacture of nineteen different assault weapons in the 1994 crime bill, ingenious foreign gun makers were trying to evade the law by making modifications on guns whose only purpose was to kill people
Good Friday, April 10, was one of the happiest days of my presidencySeventeen hours past the deadline for a decision, all the parties in Northern Ireland chanel cambon large tote bag agreed to a plan to end thirty years of sectarian violenceI had been up most of the night before, trying to help George Mitchell close the dealBesides George, I talked to Bertie Ahern, and to Tony Blair, David Trimble, and Gerry Adams twice, before going to bed at 2:30 aAt five, George woke me with a request to call Adams again to seal the deal
The agreement was a fine piece of work, calling for majority rule and minority rights; shared political decision making and shared economic benefits; continued ties to the United Kingdom and new ties to IrelandThe process that produced the pact began with the determination of John Major and Albert Reynolds to seek peace, continued when John Bruton succeeded Reynolds, and was completed by Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, David Trimble, John Hume, and Gerry AdamsMy first visa to Adams and the subsequent intense engagement of the White House made a difference, and George Mitchell handled the negotiations brilliantly
Of course, the main credit went to those who had to make the hard decisions, the Northern Irish leaders, Blair, and Ahern, and to the people of Northern Ireland who had chosen the promise of peace over a poisoned pastThe agreement would have to be ratified in a referendum by the voters of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on May 22With a touch of Irish eloquence, it became known as the Good Friday accord
At around that time, I also flew to the Johnson Space Center in gucci bags discount Houston to discuss our newest shuttle mission to conduct twenty-six experiments on the impact of space on the human body, including how the brain adapts and what happens to the inner ear and the human balance systemOne of the crew was in the audience, seventy-seven-year-old senator John GlennAfter flying 149 combat missions in World War II and Korea, John had been one of Americas first astronauts more than thirty-five years earlierHe was retiring from the Senate and was itching to go into space once moreNASAs director, Dan Goldin, and I were strongly in favor of Glenns participation because our space agency wanted to study the effects of space on agingI had always been a strong supporter of the space program, including the International Space Station and the upcoming mission to Mars; John Glenns last hurrah gave us a chance to show the practical benefits of space exploration
I then flew to Chile for a state visit and the second Summit of the AmericasAfter the long, harsh dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Chile seemed firmly committed to democracy under the leadership of President Eduardo Frei, whose father had also been president of Chile in the 1960sShortly after the summit, Mack McLarty resigned as my special envoy to the AmericasBy then my old friend had made more than forty trips to the region in the four years since he had taken the job and, in so doing, had sent an unmistakable message that the dior United States was committed to being a good neighbor
The month ended on two high notesI held a reception for members of Congress who had voted for the 1993 budget, including those who had lost their seats for doing so, to announce that the deficit had been completely eliminated for the first time since 1969It was a development that would have been unthinkable when I took office, and impossible without the hard vote for the economic plan in 1993On the last day of the month, the Senate voted, 8019, to approve another of my major prioritiesbringing Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic into NATO
In mid-May our efforts to ban nuclear testing were shaken when India conducted five underground testsTwo weeks later, Pakistan responded with six tests of its ownIndia claimed its nuclear weapons were needed as a deterrent to China; Pakistan said it was responding to IndiaPublic opinion in both nations strongly supported the possession of nuclear weapons, but it was a dangerous propositionFor one thing, our national security people were convinced that, unlike the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, India and Pakistan knew little about each others nuclear capabilities and policies for using themAfter the Indian tests, I urged Pakistans prime minister Nawaz Sharif not to follow suit, but he couldnt resist the political pressure
I was deeply concerned about Indias decision, not only because I considered it so imitation tiffany jewelry dangerous, but also because it set back my policy of improving Indo-Urelations and made it harder for me to secure Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban TreatyFrance and the UK had already done so, but there was a growing sense of isolation and unilateralism in Congress, as evidenced by the failure of the fast-track legislation and the refusal to pay our UN dues or our contribution to the International Monetary FundThe IMF funding was especially importantWith an Asian financial crisis threatening to spread to fragile economies in other parts of the world, the IMF needed to be able to organize an aggressive and well-funded responseThe Congress was compromising the stability of the global economy
While the nuclear testing controversy was unfolding, I had to leave on another trip, to the annual G-8 summit being held in Birmingham, EnglandOn the way, I stopped in Germany for a meeting with Helmut Kohl at Sans Souci, the palace of Frederick the Great; for a celebration marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Berlin airlift; and for a public appearance with Kohl at a General Motors Opel plant in Eisenach, in the former East Germany
Kohl was in a tough fight for reelection, and my appearances with him beyond the airlift ceremonies raised a few questions, especially since his Social Democratic Party opponent, Gerhard Schroeder, was running on a platform that was a lot like what Tony Blair and I were omega chronograph watches advocating
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