UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Washington, D.C. and NATO's 50th anniversary commemorative event.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today's NATO leaders used the same auditorium their predecessors used 50 years ago when the alliance was born. Then, Harry Truman promised a NATO that would influence peace not only in the area it specifically covers, but throughout the world. The NATO leaders signed a ceremonial declaration affirming collective defense as NATO's core mission. Beneath the surface of NATO unity, there are lots of disagreements on ground troops, on the oil embargo, even on the bombing. The 50th anniversary summit began while NATO bombs were falling outside the borders of alliance countries. The summiteers first act was to talk tough about the bombing to put a stop to Serbia's expulsion of Kosovo's ethnic population.</s>TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We cannot and we will not stand by and let this hideous policy of ethnic cleansing succeed. Defeating it and reversing it is the best anniversary memorial NATO could possibly have.
CNN 20: NATO's 50th Anniversary, April 23, 1999