On November 27th, 1995, President Clinton delivered a speech on America’s role in the Bosnian war and in other international affairs. Clinton declared that the United State’s intervention and communication with surrounding European countries have caused the newly found peace agreement produced in Bosnia. He claimed how the core values of American democracy include intervening on terrorist, religious, regional, and destructive issues. He also stated how NATO needs to depend on American leadership in this area because America could offer the privileges of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that other nations cannot. Clinton gave this speech 8 years after Reagan’s speech at Kansas State. As Reagan spread the word of American success and importance in the world, Clinton championed American exceptionalism in a similar way by giving out the message that the United States was essential for not only peace in Bosnia, but also administration and harmony in other world affairs as well.
From our birth, America has always been more than just a place. America has embodied an idea that has become the ideal for billions of people throughout the world. Our founders said it best: America is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In this century especially, America has done more than simply stand for these ideals. We have acted on them and sacrificed for them. Our people fought two world wars so that freedom could triumph over tyranny. After World War I, we pulled back from the world, leaving a vacuum that was filled by the forces of hatred. After World War II, we continued to lead the world. We made the commitments that kept the peace, that helped to spread democracy, that created unparalleled prosperity and that brought victory in the Cold War.
Today, because of our dedication, America’s ideals — liberty, democracy and peace — are more and more the aspirations of people everywhere in the world. It is the power of our ideas, even more than our size, our wealth and our military might, that makes America a uniquely trusted nation.