Clinton’s Record as President

* “As Energetic Reformer, Clinton Changed World” (Jan. 15) mentioned the Clinton administration’s greatest shame in only one misleading sentence. To say that President Clinton “for example, opted not to get enmeshed in Rwanda’s genocide in 1994” is to suggest that if I forcibly restrain another person from helping an accident victim and yell that the victim isn’t hurt, I’m merely “opting” not to get “enmeshed” in helping that victim.

Perhaps 800,000 people were murdered over the three months in 1994 that the Clinton administration fought against help to all the people of Rwanda. It was the administration’s conscious strategy to deflect attention from the genocide in Rwanda by refusing to call it what it really was. And when it really counted, the administration pointedly refused to provide other countries with nonlethal equipment that those countries had asked for to stop the orgy of violence by intoxicated people wielding machetes from one village to another. Clinton’s actions toward Rwanda are part of his foreign policy legacy that must not be forgotten when his economic diplomacy is lauded.

GRANT BARNES

Los Angeles

*

Regarding your series on Clinton’s presidency (Jan. 14-16): Whatever future historians may decide, I think it is safe to say that the Clinton presidency will not be soon forgotten. Liberals may take heart that Clinton reinvigorated the Democratic power base. Conservatives may take heart that Clinton’s personal flaws prevented a Republican disaster in the 2000 election. My sympathies now go out to George W. Bush, who has to follow a president worthy of a Greek tragedy. Whether Al Gore or Bush had won, the winner ends up in that same boat, following Clinton, so Gore should take heart that 2004 might be a better year for him. Bush should take heart that he will be in the White House at all.

RICHARD TAYLOR

Rancho Santa Margarita

*

It has been a long wait, but we will finally stop reading on your front page and editorial pages about what a great president Clinton has been. Great, my eye! I could list numerous reasons for disagreeing with your assessments, but I’ll just say this: Our country would be much better off today if we had never heard of Bill Clinton.

BARNEY BARNETT

Palos Verdes Estates