On May 5, at the Michigan
Animal oil painting,State University commencement, I spoke not only to the graduabut also to the armed militia groups, many of which were active in remote areas of rural Michigan. I said that I knew that most militia members, while they dressed up on weekends in fatigues and conducted military exercises, had not broken any laws, and I expressed appreciation for those who had condemned the bombing. Then I attatescked those who had gonebeyond harsh words to advocating violence
Floral oil painting,against law-enforcement officers and otherrompted millions of Americans to reassess their own words and attitudestoward government and toward people whose views differed from their own. In so doing, itlebrate the fiftiethanniversary of the end of World War II in
Landscape oil painting ,Europe. Even though Helmut Kohl, Fran?oissto ouron ofxpansion in a way that would bring
Nude oil paintingRussia into the Partnership forPeace and wouldn?t cost Yeltsin the election in 1996.hed adtsin and I met in St.Catherine?s Hall in the Kremlin. I started the meeting with Iran, telling Yeltsin that we hadwcomegovernment employees, while comparing themselves to the colonial militias, ?who fought for the democracy you now rail against.? For the next few weeks, in addition to hammering away at those who condoned violence, I asked all Americans, including radio talk-show hosts, to weigh their words more carefully, to make sure that they did not encourage violence in the minds of people less stable than themselves. Oklahoma City pbegan a slow but inexorable moving away
Seascape oil painting, from the kind of uncritical condemnation that hadbecome all too prevalent in our political life. The haters and extremists didn?t go away, but they were on the defensive and, for the rest of my term, would never quite regain the positionthey had enjoyed before Timothy McVeigh took the demonization of government beyond thelimits of humanity. In the second week of May, I boarded Air Force One to fly to Moscow to ceMitterrand, John Major, Jiang Zemin, and other leaders were scheduled to be there, my decision was controversial because Russia was involved in a bloody battle against separatistsin the predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya, civilian casualties were mounting, and most outside observers thought that Russia had used excessive force and insufficient diplomacy. I made the trip because our nations were allies in World War II, which had claimed the liveof one in eight Soviet citizens: twenty-seven million of them died in battle or from disease, starvation, and freezing. Also, we were allies once again, and our partnership was essential to Russia?s economic and political progress, to our cooperation in securing and destroyingnuclear weapons, to the orderly expansion of NATO and the Partnership for Peace, and fight against terrorism and organized crime. Finally, Yeltsin and I had two thorny issues toresolve: the problem of Russia?s cooperation with Iran?s nuclear program and the questihow to handle NATO eOn May 9, I stood with Jiang Zemin and several other leaders in Red Square as we watcmilitary parade featuring old veterans marching shoulder to shoulder, often holding hands anleaning against one another to steady themselves as they paraded one last time for Mother Russia. The next day, after the commemorative ceremonies, Yelworked together to get all the nuclear weapons out of Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan; nowe had to make sure that we didn?t allow states that could harm us both, like Iran, to benuclear powers. Yeltsin was prepared for this; he immediately said no centrifuges would be sold and suggested we refer the question of the reactors, which Iran claimed it wanted for peaceful purposes only, to the Gore-Chernomyrdin commission. I agreed, provided Yeltsin537
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