MR. LAUER: On "Close Up" this morning -- the showdown with Iraq. As UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan heads to Baghdad in a last-ditch diplomatic
effort to end the standoff, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is traveling
around the United States making the administration’s case for a possible
strike against Saddam Hussein. Madame Secretary, good morning to you, good
to see you.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Good morning, Matt, nice to see you.
MR. LAUER: Thank you. To put it bluntly, you were heckled yesterday. What
was your reaction to the reception you received?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, actually, I thought it was a very interesting meeting.
There were a couple of dozen hecklers. But for the most part, there were
some very serious people in the audience who had serious questions that we
tried to answer. And we’ll continue to do so.
MR. LAUER: That’s true. You did have people who stood up and expressed
their concern over military action against Iraq. Did you walk away from the
meeting, Madame Secretary, with a different point of view, a different
perspective on the situation?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Absolutely not. I think that we know what we have to
do, and that is help enforce the UN Security Council resolutions, which demand
that Saddam Hussein abide by those resolutions, and get rid of his weapons
of mass destruction, and allow the inspectors to have unfettered and
unconditional access. That’s what we have to do.
Matt, we would like to solve this peacefully. But if we cannot, we will be
using force; and the American people will be behind us, and I think that
they understand that.
MR. LAUER: I’m just curious. Do you think yesterday’s session helped
or hurt your case? I mean, back in the early 1990s, Madame Secretary, you
used to appear on this show as an analyst for foreign affairs with William
Hyland. And you’d come on and talk about the Administration’s reaction
to foreign affairs. If you were analyzing yesterday’s performance by
you and your colleagues, how would you rate it?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I thought our performance was great. But I think that
the issue here is that there were people who disagree. I would probably say
that there were a few dozen hecklers who disagreed. But what I would have
said, actually, is that there were more people that asked questions and directed
their thoughts about the fact that we ought to send in ground forces.
That’s what I found interesting -- that there are more Americans who
really would like us to go in and finish off Saddam Hussein. That was the
message that I got from that meeting.
MR. LAUER: And you lead me right into my next question, because one man you
heard from yesterday was a retired serviceman named Mike McCall, whose son
died during the Vietnam War. Here’s what he said.
(Audio clip.)
Madame Secretary, Secretary of Defense William Cohen attempted to answer
that question yesterday. Why don’t you give it a shot for me today.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, we had a half-a-million troops there in 1991. And
the decision was that they could not take out Saddam Hussein. And I don’t
think, frankly, that if we got into it, that the American people would want
us to send in huge numbers of forces. So we are doing what must be done.
First of all, we would like to have a diplomatic, peaceful solution and have
him give unfettered access to these places, so that we could tell what is
happening with his weapons of mass destruction. But otherwise, the purpose
of a very substantial strike will be to substantially reduce his weapons
of mass destruction threat and his threat to the neighbors. We think that
is an appropriate goal, and our goal -- and we’ve said this, Matt --
may not seem really decisive; but what we’re trying to do here is contain
Saddam Hussein. We’ve managed to do that for seven years. This has been
a successful policy. Whenever he puts his head up, we push him back.
MR. LAUER: Let me bring in the man who asked that question in Columbus yesterday,
Madame Secretary. Mike McCall, good morning to you.
MR. MCCALL: Good morning, sir, how are you?
MR. LAUER: Oh, thank you, I’m fine. It was a bit impersonal and somewhat
raucous in that room yesterday, so let me give you a chance to ask a question
one-on-one to the Secretary of State.
MR. MCCALL: Good morning, Madame, how are you?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Good morning, good to see you again.
MR. MCCALL: Thank you, kind of early in the morning. My question is, actually,
more of a statement. I’m not a warmonger; I don’t want to see a
war; and I don’t think there was any man in that room that was in uniform
yesterday, if I’d have asked the question, who wants a war, who would
have stood up.
My thought was, if we send in troops after a saturated bombing run and get
this thing neutralized to where the troops could almost walk in there in
parade formation as more or less of a police force to support the inspectors
that come in; get those weapons; destroy them and then turn around to Saddam
Hussein and say, "Hey, run your country now, run it like a human being, take
care of your people, we’ll buy your oil, we’ll give you money for
your oil, and make this country for your people." I don’t want to hurt
those people.
MR. LAUER: Let me ask the Secretary of State, is that feasible?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, let me say how much I admire the
gentleman who asked the question; I did yesterday; he is clearly a great
patriot.
I think the problem with the idea is that we would have to end up being an
occupying force. The Americans don’t want to do that. I don’t think
the American people would want us to do that. But after the substantial strike,
I think we have a much better chance of having the inspectors go back in
or make sure that these weapons are not reconstituted by being willing to
do another strike.
This is a very serious problem. None of us are saying that there are easy
solutions to it, but we have to contain Saddam Hussein. And, as I’ve
said many times, we are prepared to deal, ready to deal with a post-Saddam
regime.
But I appreciate what he’s saying, because I think he’s a very
brave American and a patriotic American who understands why we have to do
this.
MR. LAUER: Mike, let me ask you to stand by, and let me ask a couple more
questions to Madeleine Albright.
Madame Secretary, your trip to the Middle East several weeks ago was not
as successful as I think you would have liked, in building a coalition against
Saddam Hussein at this point -- certainly not as successful as the coalition
in 1991. Have you spoken to President Bush or former Secretary of State Baker
and asked for any advice on gaining support from the Arab world?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: First of all, I think my trip actually went pretty well,
because this is a very different situation from ’91, when there was
a cross-border invasion of one Arab country into another. And frankly, I
got a lot more support than is publicly visible, because these people live
in the region.
MR. LAUER: So they’re saying one thing in public, and saying something
else to you in private?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Yes, yes. And we feel comfortable that should we have
to use military force, that they will be very cooperative.
And as a matter of fact, I did talk to both former President Bush and former
Secretary of State Baker; and they both agreed that we have a much more
complicated situation than they had on their hands. And they were very
supportive, and I especially enjoyed -- well, I enjoyed talking to both of
them, because they do have some very good points.
MR. LAUER: Will you speak for me, Madame Secretary, to the parents of American
men and women who may soon be asked to go into harm’s way, and who get
the feeling that many countries in the rest of the world are standing by
silently while their children are once again being asked to clean up a mess
for the rest of the world?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, let me say that there are, a couple of dozen countries
that are with us on this that are providing a variety of equipment, support
and are willing to be with us. So there is a misunderstanding about saying
that there is no coalition; there is. And the truth is that in the Gulf War,
we did most of the work, too. There’s no question that we, with the
British and French, did a large proportion of the work.
Let me say that we are doing everything possible so that American men and
women in uniform do not have to go out there again. It is the threat of the
use of force and our line-up there that is going to put force behind the
diplomacy. But if we have to use force, it is because we
are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further
than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of
us. I know that the American men and women in uniform are always prepared
to sacrifice for freedom, democracy and the American way of life.
MR. LAUER: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Thank you so much again.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Thank you.
