Clark and his supporters campaign on his military record, as well as on his liberal positions on abortion and other social questions. They point in particular to his record as a military officer in Yugoslavia.

In 1995 Clark was top military adviser to the White House negotiators as they imposed the Dayton accords, which set up the U.S.-led NATO occupation of Bosnia, after U.S. and British planes carried out 3,000 air attacks against Serbian forces between February 1994 and September 1995. The offensive and accords that followed reinforced Washington’s dominant position over the imperialist powers in Europe.

Three and a half years later, as NATO commander, Clark oversaw the 78-day U.S. and British bombing war on Serbia and Kosova. Yugoslavia’s working people were the main targets of NATO’s assault. The U.S. Air Force, backed by its British counterpart, bombed out factories, housing, bridges, communications centers, oil depots, and hospitals, in addition to military installations.

After the war, Kosova was carved up among the military forces of five NATO imperialist powers—France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. By 2001, the occupying forces amounted to 42,500 troops.

Finding itself frozen out of this postwar carve-up, Moscow, which had backed the assault and successfully pressured the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic to capitulate, dispatched 200 troops from Bosnia to Kosova’s Pristina airport. Clark “immediately ordered 500 British and French paratroopers to be put on standby to occupy the airport,” reported the BBC in August 2000, in an account of a documentary film about the incident.

Clark’s order was blocked by Gen. Michael Jackson, the commander of the British forces. “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you,” he told Clark during a “heated exchange.”

“Confront them,” said Clark, in another account carried by the August 20, 1999, Guardian. “Not unless you’re prepared to see lots of Russian bodies,” Jackson replied.

As the standoff unfolded, Moscow prepared to fly in thousands of reinforcements. “We had battalions of paratroopers ready to leave within two hours,” said Russian general Leonid Ivashev. Clark then directed U.S. admiral James Ellis, the head of NATO’s southern command, to order helicopters, along with British tanks and armored cars, onto the runway to prevent the Russian transport planes from landing. “Ellis replied that the British General Jackson would oppose such a move,” reported the Guardian.

Clinton’s White House gave Clark the “brush-off” when he complained about the British generals’ actions, which had been endorsed by the British government, said the British daily. Clark had earlier advocated the use of U.S. ground troops and attack helicopters in the 1999 assault—a move opposed by Clinton.

In the end, the Hungarian government, under pressure from Washington, refused to allow the Russian cargo planes to overfly its territory. Clark agreed to provide supplies to the Russian paratroopers stranded at the airport. Meanwhile, Russian and NATO officials cut a deal in which 3,600 Russian troops would function as part of the NATO occupation, under their own officers but without the separate zone that Moscow had pushed for.

Clark was cashiered in July 1999, the month following the Pristina crisis. According to Clark, Clinton subsequently told him that “I had nothing to do with” the early retirement.

Clinton welcomed Clark’s candidacy, referring to the general and Senator Hillary Clinton as the “two stars” of the Democratic Party. Other party stalwarts also expressed enthusiasm, emphasizing Clark’s military and “national security” credentials. New York congressman Charles Rangel said that Clark is “Teflon to the question of being a patriot.”

Like several other Democratic Party candidates, Clark has criticized the present government’s conduct of the Iraq occupation. “The Bush administration has thus far refused to engage our allies through NATO,” he wrote disapprovingly in a column in the September Washington Monthly.

On September 18 Clark told reporters that despite being “conflicted” he “probably would have voted for” the Congressional resolution that authorized the invasion of Iraq. Referring to fellow candidate Howard Dean, he said, “I think he’s right. That in retrospect we should never have gone in there. But on the other hand, he wasn’t inside the bubble of those who were exposed to the information.”

According to the New York Times, Clark also that he would “probably oppose” President Bush’s request for $87 million to finance the postwar occupation, although “he could see circumstances in which he might support sending even more money into the country.”  
 
 
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