ize the crimes by their rightful name, genocide, President Clinton issued a formal apology to the Rwandans and promised to help them build a future for their nation. Although there is no way around the fact that this was a major mistake on the part of Clinton, it does not take away from his overall success in foreign affairs. The crisis in Rwanda enabled him to stand his ground when similar circumstances such as that of Kosovo occurred.After Rwanda, President Clinton saw the importance of maintaining our commitment to a greater humanity, no matter what the costs. From that moment on a crisis did not need to be of national danger to the United States for our involvement, but of any humanitarian concerns, for we, as the greatest world power, have a responsibility towards others less fortunate. In early 1998, when the crisis in Kosovo was first developing, large-scale fighting broke out, resulting in the slaughter of 300,000 people. A temporary cease-fire was agreed on, but in January 1999, the situation worsened significantly when Yugoslav military and police forces mounted a systematic campaign of murder, persecution, and mass deportation of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians. In March 1999, President Clinton denounced the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, for feeding the “flames of ethnic and religious division” in Kosovo and began and air campaign of bombing in an attempt to stop racial and ethnic slaughter. Clinton received a lot of criticism for this, however, he held true to his ground and his belief that not taking action would result in another Rwanda or possible Nazi holocaust situation. The bombings were ultimately a success and a nearly a decade of repression and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was ended, stabilizing Southeast Europe. This shows that even under pressure and criticism, the President was able to carry out what was necessary and end the genocide. One expert from Capitol Hill states that “...
