Bush welcomes Lithuania, Romania to NATO
President cites struggle against repression while building war support
BUCHAREST, Romania – President Bush dropped by Lithuania and Romania on Saturday to personally welcome them to an expanding North Atlantic Treaty Organization that is being overhauled to better fight international terrorism.
"You have seen evil's face," Mr. Bush told a rain-soaked crowd in Revolution Square, where the brutal dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu faltered for the last time 13 years ago.
"The people of Romania understand that aggressive dictators cannot be appeased or ignored," Mr. Bush said. "They must always be opposed."
Now, in Iraq, a new dictator threatens the world with "terrible weapons," Mr. Bush said, vowing again to disarm Saddam Hussein, one way or another.
"Every nation must confront danger," Mr. Bush said. "Every free nation has a responsibility to play its full and responsible role."
Mr. Bush's stop in Romania was his last on a five-day, four nation tour that began in the Czech Republic with a meeting of NATO leaders in Prague. He touched down Friday in St. Petersburg, Russia, to confer with President Vladimir Putin on Iraq and other pressing matters, then traveled on to Lithuania and Bucharest.
First in Vilnius, Lithuania – where he was the first U.S. president ever to visit – then in Bucharest, Mr. Bush hailed the history of the moment, noting that both countries had fought off repression to receive invitations to join the powerful trans-Altantic alliance, where an attack on one is an attack on all.
"In the face of aggression, the brave people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will never again stand alone," Mr. Bush said in Vilnius, referring to the three Baltic states that join Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia as the newest members of NATO.
"You are needed in NATO," he said. "You will contribute to our common security."
Lithuanians reserved
Mr. Bush spoke in Vilnius on a cold, overcast Saturday morning in front of the Town Hall. Before him, spilling through the town square were thousands of flag-waving Lithuanians.
Security officials said as many as 9,000 people had passed through the perimeter checkpoints, with several thousand more waiting outside. But the number was far less than the 25,000 to 50,000 people that White House press secretary Ari Fleischer had estimated beforehand would attend.
And the crowd, for whatever reasons – the cold, the start-and-stop translations or the Lithuanians' own political reserve – was emotionally flat. There was plenty of cheering – but politely so, with little of the boisterous enthusiasm often evident at outdoor rallies.
Ingrida Bandzaityte, a 20-year-old business student at Vilnius University, said she was pleased that Lithuania was joining NATO. "But we are young, and we really don't feel it," she explained. "Maybe, when there's really a war, we will feel it."
Still, she and her classmate, who also had gotten up early to head downtown, were thrilled with the president's visit.
"Lithuania is a very small country ... so it's a very big deal," said Laura Matuliukstyte, also a 20-year-old business student.
For Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, who went to college in Illinois and once was a regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it was another dream of a lifetime.
"It is a great moment for us," he said as he welcomed Mr. Bush at the Presidential Palace.
Bigger in Bucharest
In Bucharest, where it rained all day, the crowd was much larger – the largest by far of any Bush speech abroad, where until Saturday he had favored more tightly controlled indoor venues.
Mr. Bush spoke on Revolution Square, where dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had fled an angry crowd Dec. 22, 1989. Three days later, on Christmas Day, Mr. Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed by a firing squad.
Five years ago, Bill Clinton, the first U.S. president to visit the newly democratic Romania, addressed a crowd of nearly 100,000 in another downtown square. But his visit was perceived then as a consolation prize because he had blocked Romania's early ascension to NATO, in part because his administration believed Romania's security forces harbored too many old guard Communists.
Saturday, with Romania now joining NATO, there was none of that talk.
Mr. Bush praised Romania's new direction and new spirit. And Romanian President Ion Iliescu promised even more.
"This is an historic moment that marks a definitive break from its past and, at the same time, a new beginning," Mr. Iliescu said. "We are aware that Romania's status also means new obligations and duties."
Both Mr. Iliescu and Mr. Bush also pointed to the dramatic turn of events in Revolution Square 13 years ago.
"Through its determination and blood sacrifice," Mr. Iliescu said, "the Romanian nation ended the Communist totalitarianism and opened the way toward liberty, democracy and profound transformations in the life of our society."
And Mr. Bush noted, "Since those days of liberation, Romania has made an historic journey."
"Instead of dictatorship," he said, "you have built a proud and working democracy."
Neither Romania nor Lithuania, both struggling to bolster their developing economies, fields the kind of nimble, high-tech military force that is important to NATO. But, in this new era of far-reaching global terrorism, there is also a high value on their locations and other strategic assets.
"The world has suffered enough from fanatics who seek to impose their will through fear and murder," Mr. Bush told the cheering crowd in Bucharest. "The NATO alliance and the civilized world are confronting new enemies of freedom – and we will prevail."