The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

MARGARET WARNER: Good evening. I'm Margaret Warner. Jim Lehrer is off today. On the NewsHour tonight, an update on where things stand with the Kosovo peace plan from Britain's ambassador to the U.N., and a look at Russia's role in resolving the conflict. Then, Lee Hochberg reports on efforts to improve access to medicine in an emergency. David Gergen talks about the American century. And Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky reads a poem by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. It all follows our summary of the news this Tuesday.

NEWS SUMMARY

MARGARET WARNER: Developments in the Kosovo story unfolded rapidly late today. The 15-member U.N. Security Council met in New York to examine a draft resolution authorizing a peacekeeping force in Kosovo. It was hammered out earlier in the day by the G-8 nations, including the U.S. and Russia, at a meeting in Germany. In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said intelligence officials see indications that Yugoslav forces are preparing to pull out of Kosovo. And in Macedonia, talks to implement the pullout resumed between NATO and Yugoslav military commanders. Earlier today, President Clinton spoke at an arrival ceremony for Hungarian President Arpad Goncz on the South lawn of the White House. Hungary is a new member of NATO.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: The key now, as it has been from the beginning of this process, is implementation. A verifiable withdrawal of Serb forces will allow us to suspend the bombing and go forward with the plan. NATO is determined to bring the Kosovars home, to do so as an alliance acting together, and in a way that ultimately can strengthen the relationship between Russian and the West.

MARGARET WARNER: Also today, a federal judge in Washington threw out a lawsuit challenging the U.S. military campaign. Twenty-six House members had filed it, arguing the President had violated the War Powers Act by not getting congressional approval before unleashing air strikes. We'll have more on Kosovo right after the News Summary. A New York jury today found a city police officer guilty of taking part in the sexual assault of a Haitian immigrant three years ago. Charles Schwarz was convicted of holding down immigrant Abner Louima as another officer, Justin Volpe, tortured him. The jury acquitted three other officers of related charges. Volpe pleaded guilty on May 25th. Both he and Schwarz face possible life terms in prison. A group of movie theater owners said today they will start demanding to see photo I.D.'s from young people before letting them see R-rated films. The group, called the National Association of Theater Owners, represents about two-thirds of the nation's 31,000 movie screens. President Clinton recently urged the industry to limit youngsters' access to violent entertainment. Record-breaking heat scorched the Eastern half of the country today. Temperatures reached the 90's and above for a second day from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean. School districts in parts of New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia closed early because of the heat and humidity. House Speaker Hastert gave his Republican troops a pep talk today. At a closed-door meeting, he urged Republican lawmakers to stop wrangling and start passing parts of their stalled legislative agenda. Otherwise, he said, they risk losing control of the House in the next election. He spoke to reporters after the meeting.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT: I just want to say, we had a good frank discussion in our conference today -- a lot of give and take. I laid out what our parameters were. I can report that as a conference we're together, we're united. There is going to be a lot of debate, there's going to be some give and take, and we'll see where that leads us. But I'll tell you one thing, this is a party, the Republican Party and the Republican Congress, that believes in small "d" democracy. We need to let our people speak, we need to debate those issues, and then we let the best ideas win.

MARGARET WARNER: That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to a Kosovo update, Russia's role, emergency medicine, a David Gergen dialogue, and Robert Pinsky reading Pushkin.

UPDATE - ROAD TO PEACE?

MARGARET WARNER: Bringing the Kosovo war to a close: The effort continued today on several fronts. We start with a report from Betty Ann Bowser.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: It took two days of wrangling to get the Russians to agree that NATO troops will make up the most important part of the peacekeeping force going into Kosovo. But that stipulation did not come in the U.N. Draft Resolution itself. It was contained in an addendum. In Washington during a photo opportunity with Hungarian President Arpad Goncz, President Clinton said he envisions Russian soldiers working in cooperation with NATO, not under NATO command.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: I don't expect that to happen, but I do expect that there will be an acceptable level of coordination the way we worked it out in Bosnia. I hope there will be something like what we did in Bosnia, because it worked there. And we had the command and control intact so that our soldiers and our mission could be protected. The Russians were involved, as it happens, in Bosnia, as you know, in the American sector, where we worked together with them very closely, and I was -- I have been very pleased with that cooperation.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: In Cologne, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russian participation in the peacekeeping force must still be negotiated.

IGOR IVANOV: [speaking through interpreter] All of the aspects of the international peacekeeping force will be discussed in further development of the Security Council resolution. Because this is subject to negotiations, it is hard in advance to define Russia's participation. I think it's important to define the resolution, the principles of the organizations and the tasks which all the international peacekeeping forces will undertake.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: In Moscow, Russian President Boris Yeltsin once again denounced NATO and the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

BORIS YELTSIN: [speaking through interpreter] The aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia has seriously aggravated the international climate. The world is facing another attempt at dictating events by force.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But President Clinton said after his phone conversation with Yeltsin today, he felt confident Russia would not block passage of the G-8 resolution at the U.N. Security Council.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: I don't expect so. The Russians are supporting it. I had a talk already with President Yeltsin about it. In terms of compliance, that's what we're interested in. And we want to see compliance. And when there is evidence that the full withdrawal has begun, we will suspend the bombing, and then monitor that for compliance.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: On another diplomatic front, G-8 Envoy Martti Ahtassari went to Beijing in hopes of securing the support of Chinese officials for the draft resolution. But at the U.N. in New York City, members of the Chinese delegation said they objected to some of the wording of the resolution, and insisted NATO has to stop all bombing before a U.N. vote. In Brussels, NATO Spokesman Jamie Shea said NATO will stop the bombing only when Serb troops begin leaving Kosovo.

JAMIE SHEA: We are going to maintain our military pressure on Yugoslavia until we see the clear indication of a complete, rapid, and verifiable withdrawal of the Yugoslav forces. Today, no less than yesterday, implementation is the bottom line.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: After a stalemate, NATO and Serb generals began meetings again in Macedonia on procedures for Yugoslav troops to leave Kosovo, but Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made it clear from Cologne that it's time for Milosevic to take action.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: The regime in Belgrade should stop shilly-shallying around-- in case that is hard to translate, stalling. It should proceed to implement the principles incorporated in this draft resolution and approved by the Serb parliament last week.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: This afternoon, Pentagon Spokesman Kenneth Bacon showed a map of potential exit routes from Kosovo for Serb forces, and said there is some evidence that Serb troops may be getting ready to leave.

KENNETH BACON: There are a number of indications that the Serbs plan to withdraw, including a statement on Sunday by the Serb army Chief of General Staff, General Odovanich, and he talked about the onset of a peace agreement that will allow soldiers to return to their families. We've seen also signs that they are mobilizing vehicles and other means to transport people out, but we have not yet seen signs that Serb troops or special police forces or paramilitaries are moving out, but we've certainly seen preparations for moving out.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Meanwhile, NATO's B-52 bombers hit two Yugoslav military battalions along the Albanian border, reportedly killing hundreds of soldiers. Associated Press news photographers got these pictures of the big bombers circling over the mountainous frontier region. NATO bombs also hit an oil refinery near Novi Sad, about 50 miles from Belgrade.

MARGARET WARNER: For more, we go to Elizabeth Farnsworth in San Francisco.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And joining me is Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the British ambassador to the United Nations. Welcome, Mr. Ambassador.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK, U.N. Ambassador, Great Britain: Good evening.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: There's a lot happening this evening. The U.N. Security Council is considering the draft resolution, and the senior NATO and Yugoslav officers are meeting in Macedonia. Help us understand the relationship between these events and the sequence of events as you see them occurring.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, the text of the Security Council resolution was in a sense pre-negotiated amongst the members of the Group of Eight ministers meeting in Bonn, but the Security Council has to take its own decision on this and have met once now today in order to look at the terms of the resolution. The members of the Security Council gave pretty broad support for taking this forward quickly. We had given them an inkling of what was coming a couple of days ago, and I don't think they found anything particularly unusual in it. Russia, you will remember, is a member of the G-8 and has supported -- co-sponsored this resolution. So we have very broad support for taking this forward quickly.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. I want to come back in a minute to what's happening in the U.N., but I want to get clear what might happen next. The Security Council considers the resolution -- these were informal meetings, not formal meetings. You're not about to vote, right?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Correct.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. The military technical agreement is, let's say, reached. There was an announcement just recently on the wires that there may be an agreement reached tonight.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Yes.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Okay. Then, go through the rest of the scenario for me, as it is hoped it could work out.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, a number of things tomorrow we'd like to have happen simultaneously: the military technical agreement is signed; the Serbs begin immediately their verifiable withdrawal, they're watched beginning their withdrawal; we immediately, as NATO, suspend the bombing campaign, make it clear to the Serbs we are suspending it; that is notified to the Security Council; and the Security Council is then in the position because of the Russian and Chinese positions on this to pass the resolution whose text they've already had a good look at. So if we can bring all that together during the course of Wednesday, then I think we're doing pretty well.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. In the Security Council, if the wording sticks, or are you actually -- as we heard Foreign Minister Ivanov say in the set-up piece -- he said some of the details of how the Russian relationship will be in relation to NATO has to be worked out in the Security Council. Is that happening?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: That has proposed no amendments to the text that they agreed through Mr. Ivanov in the ministers' meeting in Bonn, so I think that they're more concerned about the sequencing we've just been talking about than the actual text of the resolution, which they have preagreed, I think that the Chinese are in a position, if they wish, to make some amendments to the resolution, but I think they too are more concerned about the circumstances of passing the resolution than the actual text, which the majority of the Security Council will very warmly support.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And by the circumstances of passing, you mean that the bombing have stopped before it is passed?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Yes. That's what they're mainly concerned with. They do not wish, it seems, to vote on the resolution unless they know the bombing has stopped because they have found the bombing to be so distasteful.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So you don't think at this point it is a major stumbling block, the Russians not having said for sure that they'll accept a single chain of command?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: The annex to the resolution is an integral part of the resolution, and that says that there will be a fundamental NATO participation in the international military presence or security presence under the unified command and control. I think the Russians are concerned to negotiate a dignified accompaniment of our forces to this force, but I don't think that will prevent them actually supporting the wording of this resolution.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And you touched on this. You said that China has -- may ask for some changes. What are those changes? The wires referred, for example, to China objecting to the reference in this draft resolution to the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, many members of the Security Council, as all of NATO, will want that reference to be in the resolution, and I do not see it coming out. The Chinese are an independent government. They will make their own decisions, but what they're looking for, above all, is a cessation of the bombing and a move to civil administration and a peaceful future for Kosovo. I do not think -- this may be speculation -- but I don't think that the Chinese will want to hold up this resolution for long on those sorts of issues when what they really want is a cessation of the bombing.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And you touched on this too in relation to Russia, but explain how the resolution does deal with this question in the annex of NATO leadership of the security forces in Kosovo. It never really says that NATO will be in the leadership.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, it doesn't say -- it didn't use the word "leadership." It says fundamental NATO participation under unified command and control. And we've had the Bosnia experience to show us how the Russians come in with the unit that is commanded by a Russian as a unit but then responds to the general policy of the military wing under at the moment in Bosnia an American commander. I think that this will be the model that in some approximate way will be followed in Kosovo under perhaps the early months under a British commander, but the Russians will have their own unit under their own command and I think will be able to work out the arrangements for that.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Ambassador, within this draft resolution, who decides who has to return to Kosovo?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: The refugees will I think almost decide for themselves that they will come back to their home. You will remember that the U.N. refugees organization, UNHCR, did an enormous amount of work cataloguing who the refugees were when they came out of Kosovo into the camps, so their record of names and families and groups will be extremely important in setting the terms for the refugees to come back to their homes. I think we'll have to do this on a common sense basis. I can understand that the Yugoslav authorities will want to have a say in this, but, remember, the NATO conditions for the return of refugees are that they should be confident that they can come back in security, and they will want NATO and the other contributors to the international presences in Kosovo to be running this particular aspect of it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: We have talked about the military a lot. The resolution also establishes a civilian presence and authorizes the Secretary-General to establish what's called an international civil presence in Kosovo. It sounds to me, from reading the wording that's available on the wires, like this is essentially a government to be run by the U.N.. Am I right on that?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: No. I think we will want to avoid the term "government." Clearly, Kosovo has been cleaned out in a way. That was the Serb intention. And we've had to reverse it. So there is a vacuum there of proper administration. In order to get the province back to a political and peaceful future, you have to have the stepping stone of an international presence to recreate law and order, and to give confidence to the refugees to rebuild their homes, and, indeed, economic help for that. So we call this an interim presence, an interim administration, which will not attempt to usurp sovereignty or to take this place over for any length of time. The quicker we can do this and get out, then the better, but it has to be done.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Ambassador, before we go, what's the immediate next step here? What has to happen in the next 24 hours and what do you expect to happen?

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Well, let me lay out the sequence again. I think there needs to be a military-to-military agreement on how the withdrawal will begin and proceed. As soon as that happens, the Serbs will be asked to begin that withdrawal. Then the NATO forces will declare a suspension of bombing, and the Security Council resolution will then be ready to pass. I think that could happen in a matter of hours, once we have understanding between the military sides that the agreement is ready to go. Within a few hours of that happening I think all those four steps should be completed.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador.

SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK: Thank you.

FOCUS - RUSSIA'S ROLE

MARGARET WARNER: For perspective on Russia's role throughout the Kosovo conflict, we turn to Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia. He served as chairman and ranking Democrat of the Armed Services Committee, and is now chairman of the board at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Senator Lugar, why do you think, after weeks of denouncing the NATO bombing, criticizing the mission, Russia agreed to this draft resolution, essentially on NATO's terms?

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: I believe that since President Yeltsin made a decision that participation of Russia with the United States was in Russia's best interest overall and long run -- or participation by Russia with other western nations that are part of the NATO alliance. In other words, at least from President Yeltsin's standpoint, Russia isn't likely to see an economic resurrection or progress really of coming back into a normal status with the rest of the world without that assistance. I think that point of view of President Yeltsin is disputed within Russia, substantially in the Duma, and even during these negotiations of the last few days it could very well be that President Yeltsin's support, former Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, who was doing the negotiating with Strobe Talbott and others for Russia, that perhaps Chernomyrdin's influence was countermanded by Ivanov, the foreign minister, or others -- in any event the basic question is that I think Yeltsin made a tip in that direction, and felt that was Russia's best interest.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you see the way Russia's played it in this conflict?

SAM NUNN: Well, I'm delighted that we've gotten what apparently is an agreement by the G-8, and we're going to have a U.N. resolution hopefully when the withdrawal begins and when the bombing stops. The Russian role was very important here, and I think if Russia had been left out, the serious damage that has been done to U.S.-Russian relations by Kosovo would have been much more serious. And I think what Senator Lugar said is entirely correct. The economic equation played a role in -- I'm sure -- President Yeltsin's decision, but also I believe that the democratic elements in Russia were under severe pressure, because the nationalists and the Communists were gaining considerable support from the people that were increasingly anti-American, and the fact that Russia has now played a role helps psychologically somewhat, even though there will be elements in Russia, as Senator Lugar said, that continue to oppose this. And the question of Russian troops being - that has not concluded yet.

MARGARET WARNER: Senator Lugar, do you think this struggle, I don't want to call it power struggle, but that explains the kind of uneven approach that Russia took. I mean, even today we see Yeltsin, on the one hand, telling Ivanov to cut the deal; on the other hand denouncing NATO once again. We saw Russia going back in forth in terms of either standing with Serbia or then trying to help mediate the conflict.

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: Well, it's a very difficult role for Russia to play, because clearly President Milosevic in Serbia is using the Russian situation, and/or perhaps hoping for some Chinese interference to continue to make the best deal possible. I suspect eventually Milosevic will make the deal and the Serbians will come out, but they're at least going to try the patience of everybody as long as possible, trying to find division between Russia and the NATO allies, or the NATO allies and the United Nations resolution or the sequence of when the bombing stops and when something else starts. I think we're in for a lot of that, and of course the problem, as you've pointed out, is the Russian role in terms of this chain of command is still not very clear. I'm not certain that was a good idea to leave it unclear, although Secretary Albright and others have felt this annex is an integral part of the agreement, but it seems to me that that daylight or the loopholes that were left the last time the G-8 came together led to some of the problems over the weekend, and the lack of resolution at least of the Serbs pulling out and the refugees coming back in.

MARGARET WARNER: Does this trouble you, Senator Nunn, the fact that Russia's role in this peacekeeping force is left a little murky for now?

SAM NUNN: Yes, that troubles me because I think it's very important where the Russian troops are placed and their relationship to the chain of command. My guess is they'll end up with a British commander having two hats, one NATO and another either British or U.N., and the Russians will consider themselves - if they go there at all - and have troops there -- reporting to the second hat, that is, the U.N. hat. So it is an important set of questions.

MARGARET WARNER: Well, do you -- the President has mentioned several times that Bosnia will be the model. Do you find that the Bosnia model works well, as we just heard the British ambassador to the U.N. describe it, that the Russian commander does command his own unit but then he essentially responds to NATO's policies?

SAM NUNN: I think President Clinton that is correct, that is likely to be the model. I think that we would be underestimating the difficulties here though if we believed that it was going to be like Bosnia, because it's going to be much more difficult. The hate here, the possibilities of terrorism by both the Serbs and the Kosovars, the continuing dispute about independence or autonomy, the fact that the KLA is going to be demilitarized by the occupying force, whatever that means, all of those things are much more difficult here than in Bosnia. And of course the rebuilding is going to be huge. It's going to take a long time to even prepare for the refugees to come back in.

MARGARET WARNER: Senator Lugar, one final question on Russia's role in the peacekeeping force. The Russians have talked about sending 10,000 troops, the whole NATO force is only supposed to be 50,000. Do you think NATO should necessarily want 10,000 Russian troops in Kosovo?

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: Well, the 10,000 figure is surprising, because that's a great expense for Russia. Now, there has been some discussion of someone paying for the Russian experience there, although I found when I was in Brussels that NATO headquarters on Saturday that the feeling was clearly no one was going to pay other than Russia. And under those circumstances, the Russian contribution might very well be something more like 800 to 2,000 troops, as opposed to 5,000, 7,000 or 10,000 that were mentioned, I think, by Foreign Minister Ivanov today. How those 10,000 fit in, I think Senator Nunn makes a very good point that this whole chain of command situation is very complex. I wish the G-8 had also discussed the chain of command with regard to reconstruction of the country or physically who determines which house somebody gets as refugees rush in, or Serb people are separated from the ethnic Albanians. That whole business of who's in charge seems to me to be very much up in the air, and I found nobody at the NATO headquarters who had a better idea than the European organizations such as the E.U., O.S.C.E., some vestige of the United Nations, some combination of these, but it's not going to be NATO, and it will not be the security chain of command. And that's what has been discussed by the G-8 thus far with whatever results we found tonight.

MARGARET WARNER: And, I mean, you're troubled because you think you probably need a security chain of command given the sort of chaotic situation that Senator Nunn described may occur.

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: I think that could be very troubled, but leaving aside whether they ever get the security straightened out, the problem simply of the civil government, the hollowing out that the British ambassador mentioned is all too real, and who will provide literally the civil government, the policing or constable functions, the courts, just how does life go on with a surge of what amounts to several hundred thousand refugees trying to find their way back to their homes, back to some normalcy in a fairly short period of time?

MARGARET WARNER: Before we end, let's go back to Russia. Senator Nunn, do you. -- people have talked about that there's been a lot of damage to the U.S.-Russia relationship by this conflict. Do you agree, how much damage, is it lasting?

SAM NUNN: I think the damage is not irreparable, but clearly there is a tremendous amount of repair work that has to be done. The Russians feel humiliated to some extent here, they feel very weak, they feel ignored, they feel the United States and NATO breached the U.N. doctrine, that's their view, that's very much a dispute but it's their view, and they're clearly turning much more towards nuclear doctrine dependence on tactical nuclear weapons, development of a missile that's going to have a tactical nuclear warhead on it, and early use of nuclear weapons is going to be part of their military doctrine, which is something I fought against in our own forces for 20 years. Very dangerous to them and us.

MARGARET WARNER: But you connect those two things to --

SAM NUNN: Margaret, it was already moving in that direction. This made it a quantum leap in that direction and gave the elements of the Russian military who wanted to move in that direction and the Russian politicians a real edge in the debate.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you see it, Senator Lugar, in terms of lasting, semi-lasting damage between the U.S. And Russia?

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: I don't believe that this will come about. I think that clearly for Russia there are values right now in the so-called cooperative threat reduction programs, which have surpassed really their desire to show their anxiety and their anger. But clearly the cutbacks they've made come because they lack the money in their defense budgets and they've had to go to the dangerous expedients Sam Nunn just talked about, in part at least to impress the rest of the world or their potential adversaries; that is a dangerous predicament and unlikely to be reversed until Russia gets well financially, until they're able to pay their bills both military and others. They blame us frequently for very bad advice, and yet at the same time the Russians have made horrendous mistakes, and the real hope we have to have is that a government that may come about will lead to more constructive progress for Russia. But Russians have told both Sam and me that's not going to happen, until they have the Duma elections and the presidential elections, there's a hiatus of maybe 18 months which is going to be dangerous for them and dangerous for us.

MARGARET WARNER: In the meantime, Senator Nunn, do you agree with -- I'm going to characterize what Senator Lugar said -- that, for now, President Yeltsin, however erratic he may be, is the U.S.'s best friend there? He has looked out for U.S. interests?

SAM NUNN: I definitely think he has acted responsibly in this case, though I think it's a very big mistake for us not to reach out to the other elements in the Russian political scene, the other candidates who may be running. And I think it would be a big mistake for us not to say clearly that we want any succession in Russia to be by constitutional means. That ought to be very clear, because even with all their economic woes, they're hanging on to some elements of democracy, including the constitutional system, and including some elements of freedom of press. Those are very important, and has we say to President Yeltsin, yes, we are proud of your role and what you've done here, we ought to also say quietly but firmly we want the elections to be real elections and we want Russia to follow constitutional means.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, thank you Senator Nunn and Senator Lugar. Thank you both very much.

FOCUS - EMERGENCY MEDICINE

MARGARET WARNER: Still to come on the NewsHour, dispensing medicine in an emergency, a Gergen Dialogue, and Pinsky reads Pushkin. Lee Hochberg of Oregon Public Broadcasting has the medicine story.

SPOKESPERSON: This is a medic aid call.

LEE HOCHBERG: Seven to ten times a day, these Emergency Medical Technicians, or EMT's in the Seattle suburb of Mercer Island, respond to calls from the emergency 911 line.

DISPATCHER: 17-year-old female --

LEE HOCHBERG: This call was to assist a teenager who couldn't stop shaking. EMT's can perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, they can stop bleeding and strap a patient to a board for transport to a hospital, but what most people don't realize is that the EMT's cannot give any medication.

LEE HOCHBERG: Can you give her medicines?

EMT: There are no medicines I can give her, no, besides oxygen, that's it. All we're allowed to give is oxygen.

LEE HOCHBERG: Though they're the first to respond to most 911 calls, EMT's in Washington State and most other states are forbidden by law from carrying or administering medication, except in some cases the patient's own medicine. Only paramedics, who have more training in medical diagnosis, are allowed to give medicines. This girl recovered on her own from her anxiety attack, but some doctors say the restriction on EMT's may be preventing them from saving thousands of other lives.

DR. JOHN BRENNAN: I do think the system, the way it has been, is clearly getting in the way.

LEE HOCHBERG: Dr. John Brennan is the emergency medical system chair for the American College of Emergency Physicians.

DR. JOHN BRENNAN: I think there's a need to change these laws. We're looking at examples, saying this patient should have had or been allowed to have been given these medicines in order to get better. Presently that is not happening.

LEE HOCHBERG: Doctors like Brennan, the EMS Director at New Jersey's St. Barnabas Health Care System, say the nation's emergency response system has fallen out of date.

SPOKESMAN: Jacksonville is the safest place in the world to have a heart attack.

LEE HOCHBERG: The system was born 30 years ago, when ambulance drivers in Florida were trained in CPR and became the nation's first EMT's.

SPOKESMAN: Every Jacksonville fireman is required to know how to employ CPR.

LEE HOCHBERG: State law prohibited them from giving medications, other states trained EMT's and passed similar laws. Since there aren't enough paramedics to go around, most Americans today are served about EMT's, who are still restricted by those same laws. That system tragically fell short for Mercer Island resident Nancy Kastner-Klinck and her friend, Brett Bever.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: I miss her terribly.

LEE HOCHBERG: In November, Kastner-Klinck's 12-year-old daughter Kristine, deathly allergic to peanuts, ingested peanut fragments in a cookie. Her throat constricted. The only treatment is an ingestion of epinephrine, from a device called an EpiPen. But Kastner-Klinck's EpiPen malfunctioned. She called 911.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: We have a little girl that's having an allergic reaction to nuts, and her throat's constricting.

DISPATCHER: Is she breathing normally?

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: No. And I don't have an EpiPen.

LEE HOCHBERG: So you told her that you needed epinephrine.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: Twice.

LEE HOCHBERG: Under Seattle's system, EMT's respond to most aid calls, with paramedics coming later. Two Mercer Island EMT crews were dispatched to the scene.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: I just called, I was wondering -- it's getting harder for her to breathe -- and I'm wondering if they're close by.

DISPATCHER: Is she getting air at all?

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK:A tiny bit.

LEE HOCHBERG: The first EMT arrived within five minutes, but without epinephrine.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: I mean, when an ambulance pulls up in your driveway with their lights flashing, you expect they're going to have what you need. And they did not.

LEE HOCHBERG: The second EMT car arrived two minutes later, again without medicine.

BRETT BEVER: I was up on the road waiting for the -- hearing the sirens -- waiting for them to arrive to wave them down to the house. As each one would come, I would say do you have EpiPen? Do you have it? They'd say no. I was dumbfounded when each time they came they had nothing for us. I could not believe it.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: It was like a nightmare.

BRADD BEVER: It was surreal.

LEE HOCHBERG: The EMT's radioed paramedics, who had epinephrine, but were still on their way from another town.

SPOKESMAN: We have a 12-year-old female in extreme respiratory distress. This is a sick patient.

BRETT BEVER: I said please, God, hurry up. And then finally a distant sound -- I knew it was coming from I-90, I could hear it coming, and I also felt that it was maybe going to be too late -- I hoped not, but it seemed like that took too long.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: It did.

BRETT BEVER: And it did.

LEE HOCHBERG: Paramedics showed up eight minutes after the first EMT had arrived, but the girl's heart had stopped. Her family believes those eight minutes cost her life. Mercer Island fire commander Al Provost says his EMT's were hampered by the law.

AL PROVOST: We're not giving the best care we can give to these individuals that need it in a true emergency.

SPOKESMAN: It is unconscionable that a patient died when we have the technology and the medicines to take care of those kind of patients.

LEE HOCHBERG: Emergency physician Brennan says EMT's should be trained and allowed to give several medicines, like epinephrine for life-threatening allergies, inhalers for asthma, nitroglycerin for heart conditions.

SPOKESMAN: Third shock to 360.

LEE HOCHBERG: Ad he says if EMT's knew how to use automatic external defibrillators, or AED's, thousands of people suffering irregular heartbeat before heart attack could be better treated.

SPOKESMAN: This shock on board.

SPOKESMAN: Clear, stand clear.

LEE HOCHBERG: Although flight attendants use them on airplanes, in many states EMT's cannot use them. Mercer Island EMT's are training on them with special permission from the county medical director.

SPOKESMAN: With the AED, out of those 350,000 people that die of sudden death, certainly between 10 and 20 percent could be saved.

LEE HOCHBERG: But the creators of emergency response systems say there are reasons why EMT's roles are limited. Dr. Lothar Pinkers helped design Washington State's program.

DR. LOTHAR PINKERS: So it's easy to say, yeah, sure give them these drug, they'll do great things. But in reality, give them drugs and they have the opportunity for committing just as much mayhem as they do benefit.

LEE HOCHBERG: Pinkers, a trauma surgeon, recently retired from his practice, says EMT's don't have the know-how to make complex clinical decisions in the field. EMT training is only 120 hours, compared to 1,000 hours or more for paramedics. Some paramedics agree.

SPOKESMAN: The classroom is completely different. Our classroom tends to be the hospital. The EMT's classroom tends to be a fire station.

LEE HOCHBERG: On an off-day from his job, Seattle paramedic Michael Mann said EMT's can misread patient's symptoms. What appears to be an allergic reaction, for example, in an older patient can actually be congestive heart failure. That's an ailment epinephrine could aggravate.

MICHAEL MANN: I'm concerned that an EMT in rural communities or even in urban settings is going to have that familiarity, to be able to look at someone and say, yes, this person is in anaphylactic shock, yes, it would be appropriate to give an EpiPen to.

LEE HOCHBERG: Still, in many school districts around the country, teachers are being trained to use EpiPens for students with allergies similar to that suffered by Kristine Kastner. But EMT's on Mercer Island, who were unable to save Kastner, say they, too, would like the chance to help. Captain Chris Tubbs.

CAPTAIN CHRIS TUBBS: Schoolteachers, parents can administer that, and why is there a contra -- or why is there a difference between that and EMT's? I don't know the answer to that, it doesn't seem logical to me.

LEE HOCHBERG: Washington State is training some EMT's in rural areas where there are few paramedics about EpiPens, inhalers and nitroglycerin. And the EMS agenda of the future, put out by the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration calls for EMT's to get additional training. But Dr. Pinkers says health dollars could be better spent elsewhere.

DR. LOTHAR PINKERS: Putting some of those training modules into place doesn't make societal sense. It will be an expenditure where we will do less good for a larger number of people than if we put our energies and efforts and our money somewhere else. We cannot accommodate every citizen in every state in every place in the world, it just doesn't work.

NANCY KASTNER-KLINCK: All of the EMT's were there, lined up, and you could tell in their faces, you know, if they would have had it, it could have saved her.

LEE HOCHBERG: Nancy Kastner-Klinck testified recently for a bill to allow Washington State EMT's to carry epinephrine. Four states have passed similar laws. Sponsor Ida Ballasiotes argued the medication could have been used in 300 Seattle area cases last year. But she met strong opposition from physicians, who she says don't want others to treat patients.

IDA BALLASIOTES, State Representative: If I have to be perfectly blunt, I think a lot of it is just turf, okay? And I don't think people's lives should mix with turf.

LEE HOCHBERG: Recently, the legislature agreed to a two-year trial, beginning next year, in which EMT's will be allowed to give epinephrine to patients under age 18, or to those with a prescription. Dr. Nancy Auer, immediate past President of the American College of Emergency Physicians, says such a piecemeal approach is unwise, though she agrees laws restricting EMT's should be changed.

DR. NANCY AUER, Emergency Physician: You're doing a band-aid approach. Epinephrine is a good thing to give, so let's make this law specific to epinephrine, and I don't want to see that. What I want to see is the flexibility of laws so that as technology changes and treatments change, that the system can adapt to that without having to go back to the legislature for everything you need.

LEE HOCHBERG: In New Jersey, Dr. Brennan recently convinced his state legislature to join more than 30 that allow EMT's to at least give patients their own prescribed medicine, but they still can't carry it to the scene.

DIALGOUE

MARGARET WARNER: Next tonight, a Gergen Dialogue. David Gergen engages Harold Evans, editorial director of the "Atlantic Monthly" and "U.S. News & World Report." His recent book is "The American Century."

DAVID GERGEN: Harry Evans, the second American century, you write in your new book that as it began, there were a number of prominent people who were pessimistic about America's prospects in that second century-- H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Walt Whitman, Henry Adams.

HAROLD EVANS: It was every foreign visitor pretty well thought the democratic experiment in America was too ambitious and was bound to fail. H.G. Wells went to the White House to see Teddy Roosevelt and said, "This is an impossible experiment. Why are you bothering to try and get all these different races of people together with these ideals of freedom? And it won't work." And Teddy Roosevelt said, "The effort is worth it, the effort is worth it." And he was absolutely right. Not only foreign visitors, incidentally, but Walt Whitman and Henry Adams, all of them thought the republic would break its neck.

DAVID GERGEN: Mm-hmm.

HAROLD EVANS: And Rudyard Kipling referred to the "warring archipelago of tribes in America." Robert Louis Stevenson crossed the country by train. As he went across to the West in the train, and breakfasting and having coffee at different places with all the immigrants going to find their fortunes in the West, trains were coming back. And the people coming back stood on the platforms and shouted to the trains going West "Go back, go back!" You don't often hear that. And many of the -- for instance, the Italians went home in huge numbers. They didn't stay.

DAVID GERGEN: Harry, you've consulted, you've read widely some 5,000 books that you've looked at to prepare this book.

HAROLD EVANS: Yes.

DAVID GERGEN: How do you explain now why it turned out so differently? Why were the pessimists wrong?

HAROLD EVANS: The pessimists were wrong because somehow or other the moral engines of freedom and the aspirations in the Constitution incited people to try and achieve them. And many remarkable individuals and a number of remarkable leaders helped. Just think, in 1889, the beginning of the second hundred years of America, the vote is not held by women or by blacks or by young people. Life expectancy is around 46, 47. The general standard of production is high, but still low by today. And I think it's the story in "The American Century" is the story of individuals expecting and wanting to achieve the ideals. And it's very, very important, the American Constitution or the Bill of Rights, because we begin without full freedom and we end in 1989, or today, being the freest country in the world.

DAVID GERGEN: You suggest in your book that American universities don't teach the history of the -- our second century in quite the right way.

HAROLD EVANS: Well, I'm very anxious about the teaching of history in America generally. First of all, many people don't seem to realize how exciting it is and how relevant it is to freedom today. And when universities, in particular, encourage multicultural teaching of the origins of the people who have immigrated here, that's fine, but it shouldn't lead the course. What should lead the course is an appreciation of how the country, which attracted them, secured its freedoms and secured them. And if you don't know the past of America, you can't have any faith in the future. You have no road map for the future. And I'm afraid that today many of our young children don't have any clue about how this country enjoys its prosperity, how it enjoys its relative tolerance, and without appreciating the individuals who struggled to achieve that, people like Ida B. Wells or Franklin Roosevelt or many of the women-- Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinam. Without appreciating what those individuals did, you have no guide for your own individual destiny.

DAVID GERGEN: And you found that many of those individuals were not necessarily elected officials. There were elected officials who were heroic, but there were -

HAROLD EVANS: Well, many of the most important decisions in American history arise from people whose names are not known. If I said to you now Sam Shapiro, what would you say?

DAVID GERGEN: Exactly. I'd look up your index.

HAROLD EVANS: Well, Sam Shapiro is responsible for the freedom of the American press.

DAVID GERGEN: Mm-hmm.

HAROLD EVANS: A Lithuanian immigrant with a dry cleaning shop in Minnesota visited by the mob because he won't pay protection money, and they expect him to go quietly about it. But he doesn't. He protests. The legislature is so corrupt, it won't take any notice of a protest by a Lithuanian immigrant, but he starts a legal series of actions with the help of Colonel McCormack of the "Chicago Tribune" and a scurrilous newspaper in Minnesota. And finally, prior restraint is banned. That leads to the Pentagon Papers, all because of Sam Shapiro.

DAVID GERGEN: Hmm.

HAROLD EVANS: That's just one example.

DAVID GERGEN: Yeah. It was so interesting how often ideas that came up early in the period, had so much influence even in our own time. When Woodrow Wilson went to Versailles, you have this picture, among these many pictures you have in the book, of a young Ho Chi Minh listening to -- you know, essentially picking up on Wilson's 14 points.

HAROLD EVANS: Yes, that was -- it's amazing. When Wilson went to Versailles to make the world safe for democracy and was on his knees drawing a map of Yugoslavia on the principle of self- determination, all that was very well and good. But Nguyen the Patriot, was later Ho Chi Minh, could not get a place anywhere. And all he wanted then was equality of -- before the law between the French and the Vietnamese. And, of course, he later came to get much more than that. But he was -- it's very interesting. He was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence just as Aguinaldo in the Philippines was similarly inspired by the American ideals. And when they tried to get them against a relatively imperialist power, as the United States was in those instances, they didn't get them. And, of course, they finally did after a lot of bloodshed.

DAVID GERGEN: Mm-hmm. Well, now, harry, we talked about these Brits like H.G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling coming here 100 years ago and being rather pessimistic. Now, you are a native Englishman and you come here and you've got a rather different view about where we are at the end of this second century.

HAROLD EVANS: Well, at the end of the second century, I am now still a native Englishman, but now American citizen because I was inspired by the country and so well-received here. I think America has a brilliant future. I think of America now rather like England in 1835. America has a monopoly nearly of information technologies, I mean, in a way which is not comparable in Europe, just as England in 1835 had a semi-monopoly of steam. We have resources of capital just like the English had in 1835, who put a lot of their money into America. We have a brilliant heterogeneous population, very productive. But most of all, we have a belief in freedom and the free enterprise, which may enable us to solve the problems of capitalism. We've got rid of the problems of Communism, and the problems of capitalism, of course, are well known: Distribution of wealth, race, which is destiny in American politics. And I do worry a bit about race.

DAVID GERGEN: Mm-hmm.

HAROLD EVANS: I think America is going into the next century despite China, despite what was once called Japan Inc., into a brilliant period, if it can sort out its relations with Europe so that Europe and America stay together, and, of course, Kosovo is a big test of this.

DAVID GERGEN: Yes. Harry, what lessons do we learn from the British experience -- because you compare us to the height of the British period? And there was - you know, that empire faded, that greatness faded over time. What should be learned from that that would apply here in America?

HAROLD EVANS: Well, the British empire was based upon us controlling a quarter of the world's population and a quarter of the world's land surface. And of course it was based in the end on suppression. The empire was a suppressive force. America should learn it can't oppress, and it can't impose its will too readily, as we tried to do in Vietnam, for instance, or it can't impose its will too readily anywhere. Secondly, it must remain universalist. If it goes back into isolationism, just taking the British point, the British started to retreat. And if America retreats within its borders, it will be a diminished America and in the end it will be an America, which is more vulnerable to those forces it has excluded. So internationalism and maintenance of freedom and not imposing one's will too arrogantly are very crucial to the future of the United States in world affairs.

DAVID GERGEN: Harry Evans, thank you very much.

HAROLD EVANS: Thank you, David.

FINALLY - LIBERTY

MARGARET WARNER: Finally tonight, 19th-century words with a contemporary ring, from a Russian born 200 years ago. Here to read those words is NewsHour contributor Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States.

ROBERT PINSKY, Poet Laureate: With Russia participating actively in the efforts for peace in Yugoslavia, the Russians themselves have been celebrating the bicentennary of their great national poet and hero, Alexander Pushkin. Possibly no artist of any kind in American history commands the kind of respect and affection that Pushkin does. He attracts feelings that resemble those we assign to Emily Dickinson, Elvis Presley, Thomas Jefferson, and will Rogers, all in one. The Russian national pride that's playing a role in the present negotiations attaches itself passionately to Pushkin. It's interesting to note that as diplomats and politicians strive for something like a legal contract in Kosovo, they work within the concept of law as a force that governs governors. In his poem "Liberty," Pushkin writes some lines on that concept. Here they are as translated by Walter Arndt: "Oh, kings, you owe your crown and writ to law, not nature's dispensation; while you stand high above the nation, the changeless law stands higher yet. And woe betide the common weal where it incontinently slumbers, where law itself is rendered feal be it to kings of strength of numbers!" And then later: "Henceforward, rulers, know this true: That neither blandishments nor halters make trusty buttresses for you, nor dungeon walls, nor sacred altars. Be ye the first to bow you down beneath law's canopy eternal."

RECAP

MARGARET WARNER: Again, the major stories of this Tuesday: Pentagon spokesmen said there were signs Serb forces were preparing to pull out of Kosovo. High-level military talks between NATO and Yugoslavia resumed in Macedonia. The G-8 nations drafted a U.N. resolution authorizing a peacekeeping force in Kosovo. And a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by House members claiming President Clinton had violated the War Powers Act. We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Margaret Warner. Thank you, and good night.