[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 181 (Monday, September 20, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50731-50732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24581]


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                         Presidential Documents 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 181 / Monday, September 20, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 50731]]

                Proclamation 7221 of September 15, 1999

                
National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 1999

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                As we look back over this century that is swiftly 
                drawing to a close, we recognize that the light of 
                freedom still burns brightly in our world today because 
                of the service and sacrifice of America's men and women 
                in uniform. Through the devastation of two world wars 
                and the brutality of numerous regional conflicts; on 
                peacekeeping assignments and humanitarian missions; 
                from the darkest days of the Cold War to the fall of 
                the Berlin Wall, our Nation's service men and women 
                have fought the forces of tyranny and won signal 
                victories for liberty, human dignity, and the ideals of 
                democracy. On every continent, on the seas, and in the 
                air, gallant young Americans have paid for our future 
                with their own, and many have preserved our freedom by 
                sacrificing their own.

                On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we remember with 
                profound gratitude those who suffered captivity and 
                those whose fate remains unknown. Many American POWs 
                were tortured at the hands of their captors; all 
                experienced the ordeal of being held against their will 
                and the anguish of indefinite separation from their 
                families and their homeland.

                Today we also honor the valiant families of our fellow 
                citizens who remain missing--families who have had to 
                suffer not only the absence of their loved ones, but 
                also the uncertainty of their fate. As Americans, we 
                remain unshakable in our resolve to achieve the fullest 
                possible accounting of those missing and to strive to 
                bring home the remains of those who have died. Only by 
                doing so can we begin to acknowledge the debt we owe to 
                these patriots and assuage the grief of the families 
                they left behind for the sake of our Nation.

                On September 17, 1999, the flag of the National League 
                of Families of American Prisoners of War and Missing in 
                Southeast Asia, a black and white banner symbolizing 
                America's missing and our unwavering determination to 
                account for them, will be flown over the White House, 
                the U.S. Capitol, the Departments of State, Defense, 
                and Veterans Affairs, the Selective Service System 
                Headquarters, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean 
                War Veterans Memorial, national cemeteries, and other 
                locations across our country.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of 
                the United States, do hereby proclaim September 17, 
                1999, as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I ask all 
                Americans to join me in honoring former American 
                prisoners of war and those whose fate is still 
                undetermined. I also encourage the American people to 
                remember with compassion and concern the courageous 
                families who persevere in their quest to know the fate 
                of their missing loved ones. Finally, I urge Federal, 
                State, and local officials and private organizations to 
                observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, programs, 
                and activities.

[[Page 50732]]

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

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-24581
Filed 9-17-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P