At Ceremony, Clinton Pays Thanks to Armed Forces

America’s military personnel are serving in a world where communication and the threat of destruction are instantaneous, President Clinton said Friday in observing the 50th anniversary of Armed Forces Day.

The first president to serve his entire term in the post-Cold War era, Clinton noted he has asked the armed forces to handle a patchwork of assignments: flying missions over Kosovo, containing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, keeping the peace in Bosnia and slogging through the mud to rebuild communities in Central America after Hurricane Mitch.

“Often when I see our young men and women in uniform I don’t know whether to thank them or apologize, because I know what burdens I have imposed on many of you and your families,” Clinton told several hundred members of the military and their families at a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base.

Cannon fire opened the program at the air base. Tents created the atmosphere of a fair, and visitors could get a close-up view of military aircraft parked on the tarmac. A few paper airplanes soared over the audience as dignitaries spoke.

“You stand as freedom’s guardians in a world where communication is instant but so is destruction,” Clinton said. It’s a world “where the threats of the last century have largely been vanquished, but the timeless demons of hate and fear and new destructive possibilities rooted in new technologies and new networks are with us.”

Clinton also thanked the Senate for voting Thursday against setting a deadline for withdrawing 5,600 U.S. troops from Kosovo: “The Senate said, ‘No, we won’t walk out on our allies. . . . It may be a difficult job, but we started it and we intend to finish it.’ ”

In 1949, President Truman authorized the holiday on the third Saturday in May as a time to reflect on the contributions that the armed forces have made to freedom. The single-day celebration, begun in 1950, replaced separate Army, Navy and Air Force days and stemmed from the unification of the armed forces under one agency, the Department of Defense.