A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

zer-Prize winning book after returning from the conflict . Puller was the son of

 the most decorated Marine in history . `` This morning when I got up I thought 

of Lew Puller and the countless other heroes he has joined and the terrible sacr

ifices men and women have been willing to make for this great land , '' Clinton 

said . He laid a red-white-and-blue-flowered wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns 

at the cemetery earlier in the day . The president also hosted a White House bre

akfast for veterans , telling them the nation must be vigilant in fighting to up

hold its freedoms . `` We owe our liberty and prosperity to the strength and val

or of those who fought '' in World War II , he told the veterans . `` But we als

o inherit the responsibility of defending that gift . '' Clinton 's Arlington Ce

metery speech was greeted with warm applause from the 4,000 people packed into a

n open-air amphitheater . He ignored a lone heckler , who shouted `` Go back to 

Oxford , you traitor , draft-dodger . '' Clinton 's avoidance of the military dr

aft while studying in England in the late 1960s brought harsh criticism from vet

erans during his 1992 presidential campaign , and last Memorial Day his first as

 commander in chief he met with heckling and a cool reception when he spoke at t

he Vietnam Veterans ' Memorial . ( Optional add end ) The president tried to com

fort families of Vietnam soldiers still missing in action by underscoring `` our

 solemn obligation to find answers for those whose loved ones served but were ne

ver accounted for . '' He urged parents to teach their children about World War 

II , offering as an example the story of a Missouri elementary school librarian 

who brings D-day veterans and other war survivors to speak to students every yea

r . `` To honor , we must remember , '' he said . `` Today , somewhere in Americ

a , a curious child rummaging through an attic will stumble upon his grandfather

 's insignia patches , a pocket guide to France , a metal cricket , a black-and-

white photo of a smiling young man in uniform . But learning about those times a

nd those deeds must be more than accidental . '' Veterans of wars from World War

 I to the Persian Gulf war knelt or laid flowers among the rows of white headsto

nes that blanket the gentle green slopes of the cemetery . Soldiers from a nearb

y Army base planted small American flags in the soil in front of each of the 250

,000 graves last week .

 WASHINGTON President Clinton , striving to demonstrate continued American press

ure to end Chinese human rights abuses , has outlined a five-point program `` to

 support forces of constructive change in China while strengthening the U.S.-Chi

na relationship . '' The program , described in an article appearing Tuesday on 

the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times , consists of steps by the administra

tion , American businesses and human rights organizations to push China to impro

ve human rights conditions , even though they no longer will be linked to U.S. t

rade privileges . Last week , the administration announced it would effectively 

end the effort to link China 's human rights record with its status as a most-fa

vored-nation MFN trading partner . Clinton 's article also clearly is part of th

e president 's new campaign to do better at explaining his foreign policy to Ame

ricans . Clinton told The Times on Friday that controversies and apparent shortc

omings in his foreign policy were not the result of staff weaknesses but of his 

inability to communicate effectively on key issues and decisions . Among the mos

t controversial of those policies was his decision to renew China 's MFN status 

, despite Beijing 's failure to comply fully on human rights issues , as require

d by Congress and a presidential executive order last year . `` Annual debates l

inking MFN to human rights threaten to block needed progress on security and eco

nomic issues while yielding little if any progress on human rights , '' Clinton 

wrote in the article . `` We must pursue our human-rights agenda with China in a

 way that does not isolate China . We can't help change human rights in China if

 we 're not there . '' The five points he outlined include : Transmitting new fo

reign broadcasts to China , including the new Radio Free Asia . Supporting Ameri

can organizations assisting private Chinese groups working on human rights issue

s . Developing voluntary standards for U.S. companies doing business in or with 

China . Promoting international attention to and support for human rights in Chi

na . Banning the import of Chinese guns and ammunition . In context of D-day com

memorations this week , the president said : `` We must not waver in the challen

ge of advancing those same values freedom and prosperity in Asia and especially 

China . It is in this region that many of the profound challenges to America 's 

national interest can be found ; it is in this region that our generation 's pro

gress will in large part be measured . '' Relations with China should be put in 

context of broader U.S. interests in the Asian-Pacific region , of which America

 is an integral part , he wrote . The president commends the Chinese government 

for recent steps , including the release of two dissidents , verbal acceptance o

f the U.N. . Universal Declaration of Human Rights , and moves toward ending the

 jamming of Voice of America broadcasts . But he underscores that these are insu

fficient to constitute real progress . He calls his program `` new and vigorous 

, '' although each of the individual points has been debated or acted on before 

. ( Optional Add End ) In the 1992 presidential campaign , Clinton pledged to ma

ke improvement of China 's human rights record a prerequisite for renewal of its

 most-favored trading status and to launch Radio Free Asia to make available new

 foreign media outlets to the Chinese people . Congress passed authorization of 

Radio Free Asia this spring , despite China 's vigorous opposition on grounds th

at it amounted to interference in its internal affairs . Establishing voluntary 

principles for U.S. businesses an idea tried with disputed impact in South Afric

a is a long-standing option borrowed from parties who oppose using MFN as levera

ge on human rights .

 ZAGREB , Croatia Croatia Monday revived a currency used during a pro-Nazi World

 War II regime as part of celebrations marking the third anniversary of independ

ence . In dumping the dinar and embracing the kuna , the government of President

 Franjo Tudjman seemed likely to complicate peace efforts by riling rebel Serbs 

, who occupy 27 percent of the country . For them and for many others , the kuna

 evokes memories of the brutal Ustashe regime of Ante Pavelic . In a ceremony at

 the Croatian National Bank , avoided by much of the foreign diplomatic corps , 

Tudjman marked Statehood Day by exchanging dinars for kunas printed in Germany .

 The notes , he said , are the most beautiful in the world and are `` the final 

act on the bumpy road to the independent and sovereign Croatian state . '' In a 

region where nationalism is the dominant coin of political discourse , where an 

ethnically revealing first name can trigger a violent response , the resurrectio

n of a currency with an echo of Croatia 's fascist past is provocative . By all 

accounts , Croatia 's Serbs suffered under the Ustashe regime . They are led tod

ay by hard-liners determined not to negotiate with the Croatian government . The

 Serbs took up arms against Croatia when it declared independence from Serb-domi

nated Yugoslavia in 1991 . Monuments to Yugoslav and anti-fascist heroes such at

 Marshal Tito have been replaced by those to Croat nationalists , and Serbian wo

rds have been purged from the language . At root is the question of whether ther

e is room in Croatia for Serbs and other ethnic groups if the government continu

es to take such steps . Asked during a Saturday night television interview wheth

er the reintroduction of the kuna would harm relations with Serbs , Tudjman repl

ied : `` Serbs in Croatia must understand they are a minority . '' Slavko Goldst

ein , a leader of Croatia 's tiny Jewish community and a publisher in Zagreb , s

aid he believed Tudjman 's move , despite his personal history as a veteran of t

he war against the Ustashe state , would offend those in Croatia who suffered . 

Effectively , the new currency is the monetary version of a swastika . Goldstein

 and other analysts hypothesize that Tudjman ordered the new currency as part of

 his policy of balancing moderates within his party with nationalists , such as 

Defense Minister Gojko Susak , the architect of the failed policy to carve out a

 Croatian protectorate in Bosnia . In recent months , several leading moderates 

have broken with Tudjman . The main issue has been Tudjman 's refusal to get rid

 of Susak and other extremists who oppose Croatia 's recent decision to back a p

eace deal between Bosnian Croats and Muslims . The introduction of the kuna coul

d have consequences for that deal as well . Nationalist Croat officials in Bosni

a have said they plan to use it in Croat-held territory there instead of the Bos

nian dinar , as ordered under the peace deal . Kuna is Croatian for marten , a t

ype of weasel , whose pelts were bartered in Roman times . Croatia 's brief medi

eval kingdom used a coin boasting the image of the kuna .

 ARLINGTON , Va. . In the midst of a quiet ceremony at Arlington National Cemete

ry Monday , President Clinton 's tribute to the nation 's war dead was interrupt

ed by a protester who shouted the sort of comment that gives sleepless nights to

 the White House aides planning this week 's European tour . `` Go back to Oxfor

d , you traitor , draft-dodger , '' a man yelled from the rear of the white marb

le amphitheater before being hurried out . Apparently taken aback , Clinton stum

bled over the next few words of his speech , which was intended not only to mark

 Memorial Day but also to lay the groundwork for the eight-day trip to Italy , E

ngland and France that starts Wednesday . The trip , commemorating the 50th anni

versary of the Normandy invasion , offers what should be a White House public re

lations dream , with major speeches and heart-tugging ceremonies scheduled at th

e sites of some of the climactic battles that helped the United States earn its 

mantle as the world 's champion of democracy . But even some of his own senior a

ides worry that the trip instead will remind Americans of Clinton 's efforts to 

avoid the draft during the Vietnam war and underscore questions about his perfor

mance as commander-in- chief since becoming president . In fact , he is going ba

ck to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar there , he helped organize Vietnam anti-war dem

onstrations although that stop has been hastily rescheduled from the middle of t

he trip to the end , in part to avoid the inevitable comparisons with the vetera

ns of World War II . `` I think this trip looms a lot larger for him than it wou

ld for another president , '' historian Michael Beschloss said . `` The presiden

t who didn't serve in the military and Vietnam is speaking on D-day and beyond t

hat , a president who is known for spending less time on his role as a world lea

der than most presidents do . '' He has been buffeted by complaints that his pol

icy toward Haiti , Bosnia , Somalia and elsewhere has been wavering and hesitant

 . Only 40 percent of those interviewed in a Washington Post-ABC News poll this 

month said they approved of his handling of foreign policy ; 53 percent disappro

ved . But the trip also could increase his stature , as foreign travel often doe

s for presidents . `` It could be that the speeches will be so good and the rece

ption so warm and the relations with leaders in Italy and France and England so 

obviously enhanced that this will be a help for him , '' Beschloss said . The jo

urney begins Wednesday with a flight to Rome , where Clinton will meet with Pope

 John Paul II and with the new Italian prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi . Late

r , Clinton will meet with Prime Minister John Major at Chequers , the country r

etreat of British prime ministers , and with French President Francois Mitterran

d in Paris . One topic will be the very current problem of Bosnia . `` The big i

ssue is whether the great powers are going to be able to hold together in some k

ind of common policy in Bosnia that is respectable enough for them to defend , '

' said Charles William Maynes , editor of Foreign Policy magazine . ( Optional A

dd End ) Ten years ago , on the 40th anniversary of D-Day , President Reagan 's 

emotional address to the former U.S. Rangers at Pointe du Hoc was perhaps the mo

st memorable speech of his presidency . `` It was the beginning of ` morning aga

in in America , ' ' ' the dewy-eyed theme of Reagan 's 1984 re-election campaign

 , recalled Michael Deaver , a top aide who helped plan that trip . Actually , R

eagan had spent World War II making training films on a Hollywood set , but with

 his patriotic persona and his trillion-dollar defense buildup he was treated as

 a hero at such occasions . In his speeches , Clinton will reminisce about the w

ar record of his father , William Jefferson Blythe II , who spent two years in N

orth Africa and Italy in an Army unit that rebuilt trucks and jeeps . After retu

rning safely home , he was killed in a car accident six months later , three mon

ths before Clinton was born .

 WASHINGTON U.S. business executives intend to hire more employees this summer t

han at any time over the past five years , says a report released Monday by the 

country 's largest temporary-help firm , Manpower Inc. . Milwaukee-based Manpowe

r 's quarterly employment survey of more than 15,000 companies nationwide showed

 that 29 percent of the firms responding to the survey expect to undertake addit

ional hiring during the summer while 7 percent plan staff reductions . `` These 

hiring projections confirm a full return to pre-recession job conditions . . . d

espite a lingering downsizing in some companies , '' said Mitchell S. Fromstein 

, Manpower 's chief executive . Manpower 's survey is closely watched , partly b

ecause it correctly signaled a sharp slowing of economic growth in 1989 , as wel

l as the economy 's uneven recovery beginning in early 1991 . The new survey for

ecasts the jobs ' outlook for the permanent U.S. work force for the months of Ju

ly , August and September . Unmployment nationwide has gradually dropped , reach

ing 6.4 percent in April . The Labor Department is scheduled to report its job s

tatistics for May on Friday . The hot issue for economists is the impact that co

ntinuing job growth and lower unemployment might have on wages and price inflati

on . Some say the economy is now approaching `` full employment , '' or the leve

l of employment at which companies have to compete to hire workers and workers b

egin to demand higher wages , thus fueling inflation . DRI/McGraw-Hill Inc. , a 

research firm based in Lexington , Mass. , said in a report this month that the 

unemployment rate is nearing 6.2 percent , which is the figure the firm has set 

for full employment . Despite the Federal Reserve 's raising of interest rates ,

 it said , unemployment is expected to fall to 6 percent by the end of the year 

. At 6.2 percent , said Cynthia Latta , a DRI/McGraw-Hill analyst , the lower un

employment rate `` will put some upward pressure on wages . '' However , Labor S

ecretary Robert B . Reich last week told Reuter Financial Television that the un

employment rate at which inflationary pressures develop may be lower than in the

 past . Because of technological advances and competition from overseas , the av

erage American worker `` is in no position to demand wage increases , '' Reich s

aid . Fromstein said that he did not believe the Fed 's actions in raising inter

est rates would affect Manpower 's projections for summer hiring , although they

 could affect jobs over the longer haul . Fromstein said that for the first time

 in several years , the economy showed hiring strength in both manufacturing and

 the wholesale and retail trade businesses . Both are considered indicators of a

 rising economy , according to Manpower . The survey forecast the weakest hiring

 prospects in transportation , public utilities , education and other service in

dustries , some of which helped account for job growth in earlier recovery stage

s . Manpower said that Midwestern companies are expected to lead the nation in h

iring in the summer quarter . It said that its survey of Southern employers , co

nfirms that the South is in a period of `` general employment expansion . '' The

 recession-wracked West and Northeast , both of which had lagged behind other re

gions in job growth , also will make gains during the summer quarter , Manpower 

said . Separately , the Association for Manufacturing Technology in McLean said 

on Sunday that orders for U.S.-made machine tools rose 11.7 percent in April , r

eaching the highest level in 12 months . Economists see this as another sign of 

future economic growth , because manufacturers use machine tools to make a wide 

range of products .

 ADDIS ABABA , Ethiopia A high-level U.S. aid delegation said Monday it aims to 

mobilize an urgent global response to food shortages in eastern Africa before th

ey grow into full-blown famine . Ethiopia , which was devastated 10 years ago by

 starvation that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives , this year risks becomi

ng the center of a famine in which as many as 20 million people in nine countrie

s could risk death , said J. Brian Atwood , head of the U.S. . Agency for Intern

ational Development . Famine threatens a swath of eastern Africa from Sudan to T

anzania , Atwood told a news conference . Relief workers in Ethiopia report hund

reds of deaths since the current round of food shortages began here and scores o

f fresh graves in villages in the south of the country . Most of those in danger

 are victims of recurrent drought . Here , as in surrounding nations , the annua

l summer rains failed last year and food stocks are desperately low . But Atwood

 said about a third of those at risk this year are in danger because of wars-not

ably in Sudan , Somalia and Rwanda . Atwood said the mission , which includes re

presentatives of three main U.S. charities , is part of a new Clinton administra

tion effort to shift U.S. policy from chronic emergency gear to crisis preventio

n . He said the administration aims to step up cooperation with what it has call

ed `` a new breed '' of pragmatic African leaders in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Ugan

da . President Clinton hopes to use the mission `` to raise consciousness of thi

s issue at the highest possible levels '' and win more aid for eastern Africa fr

om European governments and Japan , Atwood said . `` This is a desperate situati

on and we need to respond to it now to avoid what could become a major famine as

 soon as August if the rains fail '' again , he said . The U.S. team which inclu

des the heads of CARE , Catholic Relief Services and the International Rescue Co

mmittee as well as the leading congressional campaigner on hunger issues , Rep. 

Tony Hall , D-Ohio will go to Europe this week to seek multilateral support for 

a program to head off another famine . Atwood said the more than $ 1.5 billion s

pent by the U.S. government in an effort to halt starvation and anarchy in Somal

ia had spotlighted in Washington the need to prevent rather than respond to huma

nitarian calamities in Africa . So , he said , has `` the holocaust '' in Rwanda

 , where the United Nations has estimated that 200,000 people have been killed i

n tribal massacres and battles . `` Just the other day we made a decision to con

tribute $ 35 million additional to handle this disaster '' in Rwanda , he said .

 `` One wonders if we had had that $ 35 million in the previous two years whethe

r we could have done something to avoid the killing . '' Atwood said that , with

 the new focus on `` crisis prevention , '' the administration seeks to make Afr

ica a top priority for development assistance `` on a par '' with Russia and Eas

tern Europe . U.S. officials have voiced a commitment to working closely with le

aders in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Uganda who have emerged in recent years . Those 

leaders , who have stressed pragmatism in economic development and in mediating 

conflicts in the region , `` have started on a success story , and with a little

 bit of help , they can turn things around in their own countries and , eventual

ly , affect the whole region , '' Hall said . But the goal of `` sustainable dev

elopment '' in the Third World to prevent underdeveloped nations from falling in

to chronic crises has long been a goal of the international community and has pr

oven difficult to fulfill . Crises such as famines or wars often force the diver

sion of development aid funds into emergency relief . With pressures remaining h

igh in Washington and other capitals for budget cutting , and a public perceptio

n that Africa is a `` bottomless pit '' for aid money , it is not clear whether 

the U.S. administration and other donor governments can allocate sufficient fund

s for both . Atwood said U.S. disaster assistance worldwide is about $ 1.6 billi

on , about twice what is spent on development aid that could permit stricken cou

ntries to become less dependent . He called that `` a poor ratio '' that should 

be reversed .

 GAZA CITY , Gaza Strip As the euphoria that followed Israel 's troop withdrawal

 begins to fade , anxiety is growing over the critical lack of money to govern a

nd rebuild the new Palestinian autonomous areas of Gaza and Jericho . The cash c

runch threatens every part of Palestinian society , which has been left to fend 

for itself with this month 's hand-over of civil and security powers from Israel

 . The Palestine Liberation Organization , while steadily asserting its control