pd07jn99 Statement on the Decision To Extend Normal Trade Relations Status With...

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before. With this great power, there also comes an enormous 
responsibility to ensure that parents have the tools they need so that 
the movies children watch, the music they listen to, and the video games 
they play reflect the values that parents want to pass on to their 
children.
    Too often today children are exposed to images that glamorize 
violence and desensitize children to it. Numerous studies have shown 
that this kind of violent programming can promote violent tendencies in 
children. Media violence increases children's aggression towards others 
and promotes the development of a sense of callousness towards violence. 
And such programming can have a particularly negative effect on children 
who are already vulnerable.
    My Administration has worked hard to give parents the information 
they need to make the right choices for their children. My 
Administration has brought about a breakthrough agreement by the 
television industry to create a content-based voluntary ratings system 
that informs viewers of the appropriateness of the programs they watch. 
Along with the V-Chip, this rating system will enable parents to choose 
the programs their children watch, and allow them to better control the 
images to which their children are exposed.
    Today, the motion picture, recording, and video game industries also 
use content-based ratings to improve the choices parents have. If, 
however, these industries market violent or other inappropriate 
materials, rated for adults, to children, then they undermine the 
effective functioning of the ratings systems. And the industries make it 
harder for parents to control the movies, music, and games to which 
their children are exposed.
    Therefore, I am requesting that the Federal Trade Commission and the 
Department of Justice to conduct a study on the marketing practices of 
the motion picture, recording, and video game industries with regard to 
material rated for adults to determine whether and to what extent these 
industries market such material to children. Among other matters, the 
study should examine whether such violent material rated for adults is 
advertised or promoted in media outlets in which minors comprise a 
substantial percentage of the audience. The study also should examine 
whether these advertisements are intended to and in fact attract 
underage audiences.
    As a result of this study, we will learn more about how violence is 
marketed to our children. I thank you for your efforts in this area and 
your attention to this project.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to Attorney General Janet Reno and 
Chairman Robert Pitofsky of the Federal Trade Commission.


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[Page 1012-1013]
 
Monday, June 7, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 22
Pages 1003-1048
 
Week Ending Friday, June 4, 1999
 
Statement on the Resignation of Mark D. Gearan as Director of the Peace 
Corps

June 1, 1999

    Today I am announcing that my good friend and trusted adviser Mark 
Gearan will be leaving his position as the Director of the Peace Corps 
later this summer. Mark has accepted the exciting challenge of serving 
as the next president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, one of our 
Nation's most distinguished academic institutions. The trustees of the 
colleges have made a very wise decision in selecting Mark Gearan as 
their new president. He is gifted, humane, a leader, and deeply 
committed to the education of young people. I know that he will bring 
great vision to the colleges as they enter the next century.
    I have relied on Mark Gearan's skills, wisdom, and talents for many 
years. He was a close aide to me from the time I first sought the 
Presidency; he served as Vice President Gore's campaign manager in the 
1992 election; and he served me in the White House as Deputy Chief of 
Staff and Director of Communications.
    One of the best personnel decisions I have made as President was to 
appoint Mark Gearan as the Director of the Peace Corps. I believe he has 
been one of the most successful Directors since President Kennedy 
established the Peace Corps in 1961. He has rejuvenated the Peace Corps 
and demonstrated a deep commitment to its legacy of service and the 
women and men who serve

[[Page 1013]]

as Peace Corps volunteers. He can be proud that the Peace Corps will 
soon have more volunteers serving overseas than at any time in a 
generation.
    Mark strengthened the Peace Corps in many ways. He has established 
the Crisis Corps, a new program within the Peace Corps that enables 
former volunteers to help people in other countries recover from the 
effects of natural disasters and humanitarian crises. He established new 
volunteer programs in South Africa, Jordan, and Bangladesh, and has 
managed the Peace Corps with great skill and care. This record of 
performance has convinced me, and the Congress, that the Peace Corps 
should field 10,000 volunteers, and I was proud to sign into law an 
authorization bill that will put us on the path toward achieving this 
goal by the year 2003.
    I thank Mark for his friendship and service. Hillary and I will miss 
Mark, his wife, Mary, and their two daughters, Madeleine and Kathleen. 
We wish them the very best as they take this new step in their lives.


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[Page 1013]
 
Monday, June 7, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 22
Pages 1003-1048
 
Week Ending Friday, June 4, 1999
 
Remarks on Presenting the Commander in Chief's Trophy to the United 
States Air Force Academy Falcons in Colorado Springs, Colorado

June 2, 1999

    Thank you very much, General Oelstrom, Coach DeBerry, members of the 
team, and family and friends. You know, one of the best things about 
being the President are the things that every President gets to do. I 
mean, every year I turn on the White House Christmas tree; every year I 
give a pardon to a Thanksgiving turkey. You know, there are things you 
do every year. And when the history of our administration is written, I 
will be credited with instituting a new permanent tradition. Every year 
I give the Commander in Chief's Trophy to the Air Force Academy. There 
has been only one lapse in 7 years now. It's been an amazing experience.
    I follow football very closely, and I know a lot of people think 
this is the best Falcon team ever. You won the conference. You had a 
great record, a top-10 finish. You won the conference. You won your bowl 
game, beat Army and Navy by a combined 70 points. I hope the press won't 
report that. [Laughter] I still have a few more trips to make to those 
academies. [Laughter]
    It was a truly amazing thing. And to me, in some ways, the most 
impressive statistic of all was that for 2 years in a row you were, next 
to Ohio State, the second best defensive team in the country. I've 
actually met the Ohio State football team, and they're slightly larger. 
[Laughter] I don't think they could fly jet airplanes--lift them maybe, 
but not fly them.
    So I have really been amazed at the consistency of performance here. 
And I think it's a real tribute not only to the young men but, 
obviously, to the coach and to the spirit and to the idea that 
excellence can be achieved against considerable odds.
    And it's a great honor for me to be here. I congratulate you again. 
And I thank you for making this a tradition. And I think you probably 
cannot imagine how many young athletes there are out there all over 
America who, because you have been able to achieve this level of 
excellence while pursuing a rigorous academic program, a rigorous 
training program, being in this institution of higher education for 
other purposes primarily, there are all kinds of young people who 
believe they can do the same thing. And that's worth a great deal in a 
world where it's not so easy to be young anymore. And I thank you for 
that, too.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:37 a.m. in Doolittle Hall at the U.S. 
Air Force Academy. In his remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. Tab Oelstrom, 
USAF, Superintendent, and Fisher DeBerry, football coach, U.S. Air Force 
Academy.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page 1013-1019]
 
Monday, June 7, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 22
Pages 1003-1048
 
Week Ending Friday, June 4, 1999
 
Commencement Address at the United States Air Force Academy 
in Colorado Springs

June 2, 1999

    Thank you very much. General Oelstrom, Mrs. Oelstrom; General and 
Mrs. Ryan; General and Mrs. Myers; General Lorenz, Mrs. Lorenz; General 
and Mrs. Wagie; Colonel

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Wilbourne; Cadet Friedman; Acting Secretary Peters, whom I intend to 
nominate as Secretary of the Air Force; ladies and gentlemen.
    I'd like to also acknowledge, particularly, four graduates of the 
Air Force Academy that I brought to this ceremony today because they are 
serving our country ably in the White House: Bob Bell, class of 1969, my 
Senior Counsel for Defense Policy and Arms Control, who is soon to 
become the Assistant Secretary General of NATO; Colonel Ed Rice, class 
of 1978; Lieutenant Colonel Betsy Pimentel, class of 1980; and my White 
House physician, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Tubb, class of 1981. The Air 
Force Academy has been good to our administration and to the White 
House.
    To the families and friends of the graduating class, and especially 
to you, the members of the class of 1999, I extend heartfelt 
congratulations. It's been a long road from Doolie Summer to graduation. 
But you have achieved, as General Oelstrom told me, an unparalleled 
record of academic achievement, athletic success, and excellence in your 
military endeavors. From here on out, the sky is the limit for you.
    I want to offer special congratulations to the graduates from other 
nations who are part of this class. We wish you well as you return home 
and hope you will forever cherish your bonds with the Academy and your 
classmates.
    Now, before I go any further, I want to carry out a venerable 
tradition. By the power vested in me as Commander in Chief, I hereby 
grant amnesty to cadets who are marching tours or serving restrictions 
or confinements for minor misconduct.
    One of the cadets suggested I also raise everyone's grades. 
[Laughter] But I'm told that even the Commander in Chief can't do that.
    Just a moment ago, I participated in another traditional ceremony 
I've been part of every year but one since I became President--it's now 
up there almost as routine and sacrosanct as giving the State of the 
Union Address, lighting the White House Christmas tree, or pardoning the 
Thanksgiving turkey. For the sixth time in 7 years, I presented the 
Commander in Chief's Trophy to the Air Force Academy Falcons.
    Many believe it was the best team in the Academy's history, with a 
12-1 record, a top-10 ranking, victory in the conference, in the bowl 
game, over Army and Navy. In the last two seasons, second in the Nation 
in scoring defense to Ohio State, where the linebackers are the size of 
C-130's. [Laughter] And the team did all this in spite of an incredibly 
sportsman-like decision never to deploy a ``stealth'' running back or 
throw a single, laser-guided pass. I appreciate that, and I congratulate 
you.
    Ladies and gentlemen, the class of 1999 represents--and today you 
rededicate yourselves--to the same remarkable combination of 
accomplishment, grit, and self-sacrifice our service men and women have 
embodied for more than two centuries now. You can be reminded by that 
just by looking over at Sijan Hall, named for a Medal of Honor winner 
tortured and killed in Vietnam, to be reminded of the finest example of 
courage and honor in terrible and terrifying circumstances.
    Those qualities are on display today when Air Force men and women 
serve at home and abroad, from Iraq to Korea, to helping hurricane 
victims in Central America, and now in the historic effort to reverse 
the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and restore the people of that shattered 
land to their homes.
    A month ago I went to our airbases at Spangdahlem and Ramstein, 
Germany, to visit the pilots and support crews who are flying our 
missions over Kosovo and the young people in uniform bringing aid to the 
refugees there. I wish every American could have been with me to see the 
courage, the intensity, the skill it takes for our pilots to fly these 
aircraft at high speeds through enemy defenses, putting ordinance on 
target, putting their own lives in greater danger to avoid civilian 
casualties on the ground, coordinating with aircrews from more than a 
dozen other countries, then coming home to debrief, rest, and do it all 
over again.
    These young Americans know they're doing the right thing. They're 
determined to prevail. It is impossible to see them and talk to them and 
come away with the slightest

[[Page 1015]]

iota of cynicism about our Nation and our role and responsibilities in 
the world.
    We are joined today here by two of these brave American airmen. I 
cannot mention their names, under our procedures, for they are still 
flying missions in Kosovo. But the first is a pilot of a B-2 bomber who 
graduated from the Academy in 1986 and who has flown his craft from 
Whiteman Air Force Base on strike missions over heavily defended areas 
in Serbia. The second graduated from the Academy in 1980 and now flies a 
C-130, ferrying lifesaving supplies to the refugees fleeing Kosovo. I 
would like to ask them to stand and ask you to recognize them for their 
courage and for their service. [Applause] I am very proud of them and 
very proud of you for following in their tradition.
    America became a great nation not just because our land was generous 
to those who settled it, not just because our forebears who came here 
were clever and worked hard, but also because whenever our beliefs and 
ideals have been threatened, Americans have always stepped forward to 
defend them.
    Kosovo is a small province in a small country, but it's a big test 
of what we believe in and stand for: Our commitment to leave to our 
children a world where people are not uprooted and slaughtered en masse 
because of their racial or ethnic heritage or their religious faith; our 
fundamental interest in building a lasting peace in an undivided, free 
Europe so that young Americans never have to go there again to fight and 
perish in large numbers; our interest in preserving our Alliance for 
freedom and peace with our 19 NATO Allies.
    There are also differences, however, between this conflict and those 
we have waged in the past. Kosovo is a communications age conflict, as 
General Oelstrom and I were just discussing. It is waged at a time when 
footage of airstrikes is beamed to homes across the world even before 
our pilots have returned to their bases, a time when every accidental 
civilian casualty is highlighted, but also when the victims of terrible 
war crimes can give testimony to the whole world within days of those 
crimes being committed.

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