President Vows Not To Bend To Terrorists

Assigning a retired general to reassess security at American military bases in the Middle East, President Clinton on Saturday vowed to stay the course in the struggle against terrorists.

Grieving over the death of 19 Americans in the truck bombing Tuesday of a U.S. military apartment complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Clinton wound up an economic summit declaring, “Just as no enemy could drive us from the field in World War II and the Cold War, we will not be driven from the frontiers of our fight against terrorism today.”

Clinton said retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing, former head of Army, Navy and Air Force special operations, would undertake an assessment of the bombing and of security at other installations and report back to Defense Secretary William Perry within 45 days.