ensuing over the constitutionality of the Clinton administration's re-
patriation policy and upon the general plight of Haitian refugees. The
administration's focus was bifurcated: one, the return of President Aris-
tide and democracy to Haiti; and two, the prevention of a humanitari-
an tragedy in the form of a massive refugee flotilla from Haiti. These
competing foci produced different discourses about Haiti and the broad
divergence of the contending frames through which the president and
the press viewed the situation even after significant action had been
taken by the chief executive.

Haiti was not, however, the only crisis to face President Clinton
during 1993. In March, North Korea announced its withdrawal from the
international nuclear nonproliferation treaty that banned the develop-
ment of nuclear weapons. This was an especially delicate crisis for the
fledgling administration. Soon after North Korea's announcement, both
North and South Korea had placed their militaries on alert. This
situation directly involved the security and interests of the United
States. Not only did the United States have mutual defense treaty
obligations with South Korea; it also had over 35,000 U.S. soldiers
stationed in South Korea. The possibility of North Korea using its
enormous military--1.1 million soldiers--let alone developing nuclear
weapons, was of immediate importance to the United States; further-
more, nuclear nonproliferation was of early stated importance to the
Clinton administration. However, this crisis received little press
attention, and the Clinton administration released few public state-
ments concerning the situation. Those statements that were released did
not always correspond in content to what the press was reporting about
the crisis.

Bosnia was another situation of stated importance to the Clinton
administration. The war in Bosnia was well under way when Clinton
assumed office, and it was also a situation that seemed to persist
throughout the early years of his presidency. However, in November
1995 the Clinton administration announced it would participate in the
implementation of the Dayton Accord. The warring Bosnian parties
had agreed to this peace plan, and the Clinton administration had
agreed to send approximately 20,000 U.S. soldiers to help implement
the Accord. This was an issue of great importance to the United States.
Questions about the Bosnia mission immediately surfaced, and the
press devoted a great deal of attention to the issue. Moreover, the press
supported the president by adopting the Clinton administration's
assertions about the mission as its own. However, the press also took an
oppositional stance to many of the assertions the president and his
officials made. These contentions were most notable with the issues of
congressional approval for the mission and Bosnian Serb protests over
certain provisions of the Dayton Accord.

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