[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 184 (Friday, September 20, 1996)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 49407-49408]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-24362]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 184 / Friday, September 20, 1996 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 49407]]

                Proclamation 6918 of September 18, 1996

                
National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 1996

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Since our country's birth, Americans have responded to 
                military threats against liberty and democracy, whether 
                at home or in remote areas of the world. The young men 
                and women of our Armed Forces understand the need to 
                resist oppression, and they have willingly put 
                themselves in harm's way around the globe to do so. 
                Those young Americans who stand in the defense of 
                freedom are our country's most precious natural 
                resource.

                It is particularly painful when these brave Americans 
                are made Prisoners of War, or are classified as Missing 
                in Action. They have earned our deep appreciation and 
                respect for the great sacrifices they have made so that 
                all of us can continue to enjoy the privileges of 
                liberty. In keeping faith with them, we continue our 
                concerted efforts to determine the fate of all those 
                who are unaccounted for and to bring home the remains 
                of those who have perished.

                The grief for our prisoners of war and those missing in 
                action is most intense, of course, among their families 
                and loved ones at home, who wait--often for years, and 
                sometimes in vain--for confirmation of their fate. 
                These families display their own courage too, by their 
                endurance in the face of deep anxiety. Their cause is 
                our cause, and we pledge ourselves to them anew on this 
                special day.

                On September 20, 1996, the flag of the National League 
                of Families of American Prisoners of War and Missing in 
                Southeast Asia, a black-and-white banner symbolizing 
                all of America's missing, will be flown over the White 
                House, the United States Capitol, the United States 
                Departments of State, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, 
                the Selective Service System headquarters, the Vietnam 
                Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, 
                and national cemeteries across the country.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim September 20, 1996, as 
                National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I ask all Americans 
                to join me in honoring former American POWs and those 
                Americans still unaccounted for as a result of their 
                service to our great Nation. I also encourage the 
                American people to express their gratitude to the 
                families of these missing Americans for their 
                perseverance through the many years of waiting. 
                Finally, I urge Federal, State, and local officials and 
                private organizations to observe this day with 
                appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities.

[[Page 49408]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-first.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 96-24362
Filed 9-19-96; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P