The following interview aired on 60 Minutes II, March 31, 1999.

DAN RATHER: With the air war against Serbian forces entering its second intense week, we asked President Clinton to sit down and talk to us about Kosovo, about what to expect next there and about his presidency. He agreed, and this afternoon we met in the White House.

After walking and talking for a short while, we sat down for our interview in the Cabinet Room, and the president talked passionately about the war tactics of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

CLINTON: Look at what this guy did in Bos--let's go back to Bosnia, two million refugees, a quarter of a million people dead. And there is no question that this is his strategy. And I think he wanted to clean them out. I think he wanted to ethnically cleanse the country as much as he could. I think he wanted to drastically alter the population balance. I think he wanted to eradicate all the records of what--the--the Albanians and the property they owned. I think he wanted to erase history and start all over again. That's what I think.

RATHER: Is 'genocide' too strong a word, Mr. President?

CLINTON: Well, it--as you know, I--I--I've tried to be hesitant in using it. There is no question that a few 1,000 people have been murdered because they were Kosovar Albanians. There's no question about that.

RATHER: But you hesitate to use the word 'genocide.'

CLINTON: But I think because it--it's only a question of whether enough people have been killed yet. There's no question that what he was doing constitutes ethnic cleansing and that he was killing and uprooting people because of their ethnic heritage. There is no question about that. And I think that not only he, but others who have been in decision-making positions, have to be held accountable for what they've done. And, of course, this whole war crimes tribunal that's been set up to review what happened in the Balkans will have to review those facts. But the main thing I want to do is--whatever the label belongs on it--is to stop it if we can.

RATHER: Mr. President, there are reports that as we speak and through this evening that there will be air attacks in Belgrade itself, that you've gotten NATO to authorize it. Is that correct, is that accurate?

CLINTON: It is accurate that we are attacking targets that we believe will achieve our stated objective, which is either to raise the price of aggression to an unacceptably high level so that we can get back to talking peace and security, or to substantially undermine the capacity of the Serbian government to wage war.

RATHER: In the vernacular of the military, have you authorized them to go downtown?

CLINTON: I have authorized them to attack targets that I believe are appropriate to achieve our objectives. We have worked very hard to minimize the risks of collateral damage, but I do not believe that we can rule out any set of targets that are reasonably related to our stated objectives.

RATHER: When you say that you don't rule out any--any targets that could help you accomplish the mission, would that declining to rule out targets include the Defense Ministry, the Interior Ministry?

CLINTON: I just--I don't think I should discuss the specific targets, because I don't want to compromise our efforts to achieve them. But you can say that--that I didn't rule out any targets anywhere within Serbia or Kosovo that would be reasonably related to our objectives. You can say that.

(Footage of military plane; military tank; Albanians; burning villages; people dragging body bags)

RATHER: (Voiceover) Since the bombing began, the president acknowledged that the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo has gotten much worse. But he says that would have happened anyway. The forces of Serbian President Milosevic have continued to force tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians out of their homes and out of the country. Towns have been emptied, villages burned and there have been reports of mass killings.

CLINTON: We believe we can do something about it there, and I think we have to try.

RATHER: You still believe you can do something about it there? The last few days have indicated--well, it seemed from at least several points of view--Milosevic is winning and we're losing.

CLINTON: Well, we knew that that would happen in the first few days. He had planned this a long time. Keep in mind, before the first NATO plane got in the air, he already had the 40,000 troops there. Think how we would feel if this were going on and we were doing nothing. Now there--there's no question that in--we--we've run this air campaign for less than a week. We've been hampered by bad weather. We had to be cautious on the early nights to try to at least protect our planes as much as we possibly can against the air defenses, which are quite good. And so it takes awhile to get up and going, and against that, he had 40,000 troops and 300 tanks. It shouldn't surprise anybody that he's able to do a lot of what he intended to do, even though we've had some success in hitting his military targets in the last couple of days.

But I would urge the American people, and, indeed, the people of all the NATO nations, to--to have a little resolve here, to stay with your leaders, to give us a chance to--to really see this thing through. We cannot view this as something that will be instantaneously successful. This is something that will require some time. So I would ask for the American people to be patient and to be resolved and to be firm and to give our st--our plan a chance to take hold here.

RATHER: Mr. President, I want to read you what some fairly high-ranking military people have said privately. You would understand they didn't want their names attached to it. 'Dan, we're not employing the full power of our Air Force.' Another one, 'We ran over 200 bombing missions the first day when we moved against Saddam Hussein. There hasn't been a single day in which we've run as many as 50 bombing missions, ex--with the possible exception of today.'

Why aren't we going all out? You've described a situation that you feel passionately about and you think is wrong. You know--

CLINTON: But--but let me just say--

RATHER: --everybody knows if you get in a street fight with a bully, you want to him hit him the hardest at--right at first.

CLINTON: We have done this through and with NATO. It is an organization that operates by consensus. One of the things that has struck me is that in the last 48 hours, because of the actions taken by Mr. Milosevic, the will, the steel, the determination and the outright anger of our allies has been intensifying exponentially. So that we have now, I think, a stronger support than we have ever had for taking the most aggressive action we can. I understand the frustration of the--of some of our people in the Pentagon, but I think that the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs would tell you that--that I have worked very hard with them to give them the maximum possible leeway, showing sensitivity only to targets that might have marginal benefits but cause a lot of collateral damage. I don't want a lot of innocent Serbian civilians to die because they have a man running their country that's doing something atrocious. But some of them are at risk because of that and must be because we have targets that we need to go after.

RATHER: With all respect, but also directly, everybody acknowledges you have a brilliant mind, you're an excellent speaker, but sometimes people--people who support you and like you say, 'Well, he parses words too closely.' What 'is' is argument, all of that. I want to discuss ground troops in the context of speaking as directly as you possibly can. When you say you have no intention to commit ground troops to accomplish your mission in Kosovo, does that mean we are not going to have ground troops in there way--no way, no how, no time?

CLINTON: It means just what it says. You know, you--I--I'll come back to the point, but you say people say I parse words too close. That's what they said about President Roosevelt, too. He made a pretty good president. And when people say you parse words too closely, it usually means they want to ask you a question and get you to give an answer which is inconsistent with the objective you're trying to pursue for the American people. And so you don't do what they want you to do. So normally they criticize you not for what you're doing, but for s--what they wish you would do.

RATHER: Sure.

CLINTON: Now, I have--I have--I have used those words carefully. I am very careful in the words I use. Now on the merits of it, the thing that bothers me about introducing ground troops into a hostile situation and into Kosovo and into the Balkans is the prospect of never being able to get them out. If you have a peace agreement, even if it's difficult and even if you have to stay a little longer than you thought you would, like in Bosnia, at least there is an exit strategy and it's a manageable situation. People are frustrated because we live in an age where everybody wants things to operate like a 30-second ad. This air campaign is not a 30-second ad. It's only been going on for a few days and it's been undermined to some extent by bad weather.

RATHER: Let me follow up on something, Mr. President. First of all, the pope has asked for an Easter suspension of the bombing. Are you prepared to do that?

CLINTON: I don't see how we can do that with what's going on on the ground there now. Mr. Milosevic is--is running those people to the Albanian borders and to the other borders by the thousands a day. He's killing people. No one would like more than I to properly observe Easter, which for Christians is the most important holiday of all, even more important than Christmas really because of what it symbolizes to the living. But it--we can't observe Easter and honor the Resurrection of Christ by allowing him another free day to kill more innocent civilians.

RATHER: And to those people who say, Mr. President, that this is the most important week in the whole Judeo Christian calendar, in many ways, because you have Passover, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter, that it is, quote, "obscene" to be carrying on this kind of war during this period, you say what?

CLINTON: That we are acting in defense of the defenseless. We are not carrying on an aggressive war. We are acting at a time when he is going through the country, killing people of--according to reports, including moderate politicians, tried to destroy records of what their land holdings are that--trying to eradicate any historical record of their claim to their own land. I hate the idea of having to continue this campaign during this period, but I hate more the idea that we would walk away from this campaign while he continues to clean out house after house after house and village after village after village and kill a lot of innocent people. I think that is--I think that that would not serve to honor the occasion.

RATHER: Mr. President, as you always try to do, you're talking in measured tones as president of the United States. You have to be careful of what you say. But I'm told by those who are close to you that you have a lot of pent-up feelings about what's happening in the Balkans, what we're doing there. Can you share some of that with us?

CLINTON: Well, I guess I do have a lot of pent-up feelings, and I think the president's supposed to keep a lot of his feelings pent up. But let me say, I--I think throughout human history, one of the things that has most bedeviled human beings is their inability to get along with people that are different than they are, and their vulnerability to be led by demagogues who play on their fears of people who are different than they are. And here we are at the end of the Cold War, we're on the verge of the 21st century, and what is the dominant problem of our time, from the Middle East to Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, to Central Africa? People still wanting to kill each other because of their racial, their religious, their ethnic, their cultural differences. This is crazy.

RATHER: When we come back, Mr. Clinton talks about his presidency and events of the past year.

(Announcements)

RATHER: There was a point in the interview in the Cabinet Room this afternoon when the interview broadened out and President Clinton talked about what's happened the past year and his presidency.

Could you describe to me what you believe to be the responsibilities of a husband of a United States senator?

CLINTON: I don't know, but I'm willing to fulfill them. You know, I--I--I would do whatever. I would--I would fill in at dinners, make speeches when she had to vote. I would--I'd be the main casework officer of the New York office. I'd do whatever I was asked to do.

Let me say seriously, though, I--I--I have no earthly idea what my wife will do. I can tell you that before the--the--some New York officials came to her, it had never crossed her mind. And--and I still think it's a--it's a highly unusual thing. And I can imagine that many voters in New York would wonder whether--even though she and I firm--intended to move to New York after we left the White House--although I would also spend a lot of time at home in Arkansas--they would wonder, 'Well, you know, does this make sense for somebody to be a United States senator?' And that would be a burden she would have to carry in the campaign and to explain that. Why she was doing it, that she was asked to do it and demonstrate her commitment to the state and its issues. I--I think if she could win an election like that, she'd be magnificent. But whatever the duties are, you know, for 22 years now or more, we've done what I wanted to do in terms of my political career. So the deal I made was she gets the next 22 years, and if I'm still around after that, we can argue about the third phase. And so I'd be happy to be the spouse of a senator.

RATHER: And you expect to do that together as man and wife?

CLINTON: Oh, absolutely. I would--like I said, I--I d--I don't know what the duties are, but I'm sure I could fulfill them.

RATHER: Mr. President, you know Americans like to know that the first family is OK, that they're doing all right. Given the year, plus what you and our first family have been through, tell us what you can about how the three of you are doing.

CLINTON: Well, I think given what we've been through, we're doing reasonably well. And, you know, we're not a large family, but we do love each other very much, and we work hard to support one another.

(Footage of Hillary Rodham Clinton in North Africa; Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea)

CLINTON: (Voiceover) And I think that this trip to North Africa has been a good thing, not only for our country, because I think Hillary's done a great job on it. And I think it must have been good for--for Hillary and Chelsea, too, to have that time together to do some exciting things, to be in a different environment, and I think they really enjoyed it.

But I think we're doing quite well considering what we've been through and--and God willing, we'll keep after it.

RATHER: Well, I asked you about the first family, how about yourself? You know, we're here in a room with pictures of Lincoln, Washington, the Continental Congress. When you look back over this year plus, I mean--you know, what's the moral of it? Does it have a moral?

CLINTON: Oh, yes, I think there is more than one lesson here. I think first of all, the moral is there's a personal moral, which is that every person must bear the consequences of his or her conduct. And when you make a mistake, you pay for it, no matter who you are. And it's true, whether or not it's made public or whether or not what's made public is exactly an accurate reflection of what, in fact, happened, that's not the im--important thing. The important thing is that there are consequences in people's personal lives no matter who they are.

The second lesson is that the Constitution works. The Founding Fathers were smart people. They understood that partisan passions would s--would very often get carried away and the temptation to seize on events of the moments would be too great and that's why they wrote the Constitution the way they did. And they were awfully smart.

The third thing that I think we learned this year is that the American people almost always get it right if you give them enough time to think through things and--and really work on it.

And the fourth thing I think we learned is that people expect their elected officials to work for them and not to to be focused on themselves or their adversaries in Washington, and that they will reward those who they believe get up every day and show up for work and work for them and their future and their children, and they will take account of those they believe do not. Those are, I think, the lessons of the last year.

RATHER: You said the American people if given enough time, did you ever consider resigning?

CLINTON: Never.

RATHER: Never for a second?

CLINTON: Never, not a second, never, never.

RATHER: Never entered your mind?

CLINTON: Never entered my mind.

RATHER: Did the first lady ever come to you and say, 'Listen, I think we ought to at least consider it?'

CLINTON: No. She felt at least as strongly as I did that it shouldn't be done.

RATHER: That tells me she might have felt even stronger.

CLINTON: At least as strongly as I did. But it never crossed my mind. I wouldn't do that to the Constitution. I wouldn't do that to the presidency. I wouldn't do that to the history of this country. I would never have legitimized what I believe is horribly wrong with what has occurred here over the last four or five years.

RATHER: Mr. President, you--sorry.

CLINTON: And so it never crossed my mind. And--and I always had faith. I just fate--I--I--I prayed about it. I--I--I tried to work on maintaining my inner spiritual strength, I tried to come to grips with the work I had to do personally with my family and myself and the work I owed the American people. And I just decided that, you know, that of all the options available, that wasn't one, and it never entered my mind.

RATHER: Mr. President, I get a lot of letters, not as many as you, do but I get a lot of letters from parents who say--some of them say, 'Listen, I like President Clinton. I like what he's doing for the country.' Some of them even say, 'I'd vote for him again, but I don't know what to tell the children.' On the--on the worst aspects of what's happened last year, let's try to give these parents some help. I mean, what--what can they tell the children? What do the children--

CLINTON: What's interesting--you know, I--I get a lot of letters from parents and from children--interesting letters from children, and sometimes pretty young children--11- and 12-, 13-year-old kids writing me. Some of them on this very point, and offended that they're being used in that way and because--what they say is, 'What I learned from this is what my parents always told me, that nobody is so big or so important that they're not subject to the same rules of human conduct and that when they do things they shouldn't, they have to bear the consequences. But that if they--they bear the consequences, say they're sorry, and go on, they should be able to go on with their lives because they also know that every person makes mistakes. No one is so big or so important that they are perfect.' And so that's what I would say to our children.

That's what I think the lessons of all those Bible stories are of the great figures in the Bible who did things they shouldn't have done. The--the reason those stories are in the Bible is to say, 'Everyone sins, but everyone is held accountable, and everyone has a chance to go on.' And that all three of those points need to be made. And if you say that to our children--I think that's what needs to be said. Kids are pretty smart. And they--this is a good lesson, not a bad lesson for them. I'm sorry that I had to be the example, and it's painful, but the lessons--the right lessons properly learned will be good for them and good for our country.

RATHER: Last question if you'll indulge me. You agree that whatever you do, however this situation in Kosovo turns out, whatever else you do, in the first paragraph of your obituary is going to be a reference to what you consider among the worst things that's ever happened to you, only president in the 20th century to be im--impeached, only--one of only two presidents to be impeached. Give me some sense of how you feel about that within--within yourself?

CLINTON: Well, first of all, I'm not at all sure that's right, that it will be the first paragraph of the obituary. And secondly, if it is, if the history writers are honest, they'll tell it for just exactly what it was. And I am honored that something that was indefensible was pursued and that I had the opportunity to defend the Constitution. That doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I did something I shouldn't have done, which I'm ashamed of and which I apologize for, but it was--it had nothing to do with the impeachment process, and I think that's what the American people, two-thirds of them, knew all along. And I--and I stood--and I determined that I would defend the Constitution and the work of my administration and those that did not agree with what I had done and were furious that it had worked and that the country was doing well and attempted to use what should have been a constitutional and legal process for political ends did not prevail. And that's the way I saw it. I have no lingering animosity. I don't wake up every day mad at those people.

RATHER: You've got to be bitter about some of that.

CLINTON: I'm not. I--I have--I'm not. I learned--look, I'm not. Not--and I'm--I'm not saying that for any reason other than that I have--part of the learning process that I went through in the last six years, but certainly in the last--and in the last several years when I was dealing with this, when I saw, you know, the--all these other charges, they were always false, they never amounted to anything, and--and half the people that were propagating them knew they were false. I realized that particularly in the last year, if I wanted people to give me forgiveness, I had to extend forgiveness. If I wanted to be free to be the best president and the best husband and father and the best person I could be, I had to free myself of bitterness. And I have worked very hard at it.

And I have had very powerful examples. I look at a man like Nelson Mandela who suffered enormously. Yes, he was part of a political movement that was threatening to the people who were in, but he didn't deserve to go to jail for 27 years, and in the 27 years he was there, he purged himself of his hatred and also of whatever might have been wrong with himself and his hatred of other people. And now if a person like that can rid himself of bitterness, what I went through was peanuts compared to that. It was nothing. And I--I think it's an--and any moment I spend full of anger and bitterness is a moment I am robbing from my wife or from my daughter or from my country or from my friends. So it's--it's almost a selfish decision.

But I do not regard this impeachment vote as some great badge of shame. I do not because it was--I do not believe it was warranted, and I don't think it was right. And I believe, frankly, if you look back at President Andrew Johnson who, unfortunately, because of the circumstances under which he came to office, didn't have the opportunity to achieve very much while he was president, I think most people believed that he was unjustly impeached and that the fact that he stood up to it and refused to give in and came within--much closer than I did, he came within only a vote of actually being removed--

RATHER: True.

CLINTON: --reflects well on him in the history of the country, not poorly.

And so I just don't have a--bad feelings about that. But neither do I have feelings of anger and bitterness against those who did what they did, whether they believed it or whether it was political or whatever. I just think that it's--it's past us and we need to put it behind us and we need to go on. We owe that to the American people, to let it go. And all of us owe it to our families and our personal lives. All the great players here, they need to let it go and go on with the business of the country.