After his Friday press conference, President Clinton sat in the Oval Office with TIME Washington bureau chief Dan Goodgame and White House correspondent Michael Duffy for an exclusive interview. Clinton talked about his learning process on foreign policy, his philosophy of military force and his recollections of a bully who pushed him too far.
TIME: You've had a string of successes overseas lately. Has anything about your handling of foreign policy changed?
Clinton: First of all, it's a more disciplined, tightly focused process now than it was in the first year. The weekly meetings with the national-security team, which we have now even when some of the principals are gone, enable us to take a long view. We've also allocated slightly more time every day for the national-security briefing, and it's amazing what a difference -- it's another 15 minutes to 30 minutes over and above the base-line time we normally give it.
TIME: What does that total now?
Clinton: Normally, it's 45 minutes. The second thing that I think I've learned about this is that explaining to the American people what our interests, our values and our policies are requires a more systematic and regular explaining. In a time when the overall framework is not clear and when people are bombarded by information, I think a President has to do that with greater frequency and to try to make a continuing effort not only to shape a new world but to find ways to explain that world to the American people. And I don't think I did that as well as I should have in my first year. Even when I was doing the right things, I'm not sure I communicated it as clearly as I should have. I think I'm doing a better job of that now.
TIME: You're not talking as much on the fly either.
Clinton: I've completely stopped that. I think that is a mistake. Then the third thing I would say is that even if your larger strategy is right, and your big picture is right, and if you are very persistent, just working at it means that you learn things and you make fewer tactical mistakes.
I think my objectives and my strategy have been right. The best thing we've done is to stick with it. A lot of these things, really, we've been working on for a long time. But I think, tactically, we are making better moves. We're doing it better; we're making fewer mistakes. Part of that is, I think, just learning.
TIME: You were quoted in the first year as saying you didn't want to spend much time on foreign matters. Do you feel more confident than you were before?
Clinton: Yes. I think the more you work at any job, and the more you succeed and the more you learn from the things that don't work, the more your confidence rises. So there's no question about that.