[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 22 (Monday, June 1, 1998)]
[Pages 959-961]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony in Arlington, Virginia

May 25, 1998

    Thank you. Secretary Slater, Secretary West, Deputy Secretary Gober, 
National Security Advisor Berger, Congressman Skelton, Secretary Dalton, 
General Shelton, General McCaffrey, Superintendent Metzler, Chaplain 
Cooper, the leaders of our veterans organizations, veterans, members of 
the Armed Forces, friends and families, my fellow Americans, I would 
like to begin this Memorial Day service in a somewhat unusual fashion 
but, I think, an entirely appropriate one.
    Major General Foley, who just spoke, the Commander of the Military 
District of Washington, is about to move on to higher responsibilities. 
He is, I believe, now the only person still serving in uniform to have 
won the Medal of Honor, which he won for repeatedly risking his life for 
his comrades in Vietnam, and I thank him for his service. Thank you, 
sir; thank you, sir.
    As spring turns to summer, Americans around the Nation take this day 
to enjoy friends and family. But we come again to Arlington to remember 
how much was given so that we could enjoy this day and every day in 
freedom. We come to this sacred ground out of gratitude and profound 
respect for those who are not here but who gave all so that we might be 
here.
    Memorial Day began with our most deadly conflict, the Civil War. To 
this very day, the children of Gettysburg spread flowers over the graves 
of those who fell there. But the debt began to run up, of course, much 
earlier, for our Nation emerged from a war to establish a truly 
revolutionary new society, which enshrined life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness as the birthright of all Americans and dedicated 
our Nation to the permanent mission of forming a more perfect Union.
    To preserve and advance those birthrights and that mission, our 
Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor. Those 
we honor today paid the ultimate price to redeem that pledge. From the 
American Revolution onward, from Concord to Khe Sanh to Kuwait, 
America's men and women have stood up for their country.
    Often we have erected monuments to them. Happily, the most recent 
one is the Women in Military Service for America Memorial dedicated here 
at Arlington last October to the 1.8 million women who have served our 
Nation, and we thank them. Thanks to these heroes, our Nation, in over 
220 years, has grown into something truly extraordinary. We have so much 
to be grateful for today: peace, prosperity, the spreading power of our 
original ideas.
    For the first time in history, a majority of the people on this 
Earth live under governments of their own choosing. In 1,000 different 
languages, people are saying yes to democracy and to a new era of 
international cooperation. Around the world, people are struggling to 
overcome ancient animosities by embracing the idea that if we are all 
equal in God's eyes, then what we have in common surely must be more 
important than our differences of politics, race, or religion.
    Today we are especially grateful for the overwhelming vote for peace 
in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to which so many of us trace 
our roots.
    As we look toward the future, Memorial Day also invites us to 
remember the past and apply its lessons. Let me recall just two events 
from 50 years ago, at the time when democracy was imperiled by the dawn 
of the

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cold war. I was recently in Berlin, where we commemorated the airlift 
that supplied 2\1/2\ million people for 11 harrowing months between 1948 
and 1949. Those were difficult days for freedom, but America never 
soared higher. I would like to salute especially today the men and women 
who participated in that remarkable humanitarian effort, a reminder that 
the will for freedom can always find a way.
    And 50 years ago our Armed Forces helped to promote greater 
democracy at home, too. For it was in the summer of 1948 that President 
Truman ordered the integration of America's Armed Forces because he felt 
strongly that all those willing to risk their lives for our country 
should enjoy the full rights of citizenship. Today, United States troops 
set a shinning example of how well different people can work together as 
one.
    As we ask other nations to resolve their differences and as we 
continue to work on the business of resolving ours, we are strengthened 
by the powerful message of hope that comes from our own military, so 
strong in its diversity, giving everyone a chance, holding everyone to 
high standards, meeting every challenge with flying colors, a model for 
the world.
    When you walk out of here today and look once again at all the 
gravestones, imagine that the story of all we have become as a nation is 
written in these hills, each headstone a page of our history. George 
Washington is a part of the history of this hallowed ground. There are 
graves here from the Revolution and every conflict since.
    On these stones are engraved the names of the most famous Americans 
and those who are familiar only to their families and loved ones. On 
each tablet is a name, a date of birth, a date of death, the name of a 
State, a religious symbol, perhaps a few details about rank and service, 
simple facts on simple stones, each standing for a person who believed 
the idea of America was worth fighting for. And all the stones standing 
together are the enduring monument to our greatness and eternal promise, 
including the stones which have no names.
    Eleven days ago a Vietnam veteran was removed from the Tomb of the 
Unknown Soldier. It was the right course of action, because science has 
given us a chance to restore his name and bring comfort to his family, 
and we had to seize it. But whatever happens, we must always remember 
that that stone represents the many unknown soldiers still in Vietnam 
and Korea, in other theaters where Americans lie far away from home, 
missing in action, still with us in spirit. They may be unaccounted for, 
but we must all be accountable for their memories as well.
    We take comfort in something Chaplain Leo Joseph O'Keeffe reminded 
us of at the ceremony on May 14th, that if some names are unknown to us 
on Earth, all names are known to God in heaven. I ask Americans to join 
me in a moment of remembrance at 3 o'clock today, eastern daylight time, 
to honor the known and the unknown who gave their all for our Nation.
    And ladies and gentlemen, during that moment we can give special 
thanks on this Memorial Day. Last December we negotiated an agreement 
with North Korea that entitled us to send five teams to their country to 
search for Americans. Early this morning at 2 o'clock, the remains of 
two soldiers believed to be Americans were repatriated to the UN Command 
Honor Guard at Panmunjom on the DMZ. They are coming home this Memorial 
Day.
    I thank all the veterans here today from all the wars of the 20th 
century for giving all of us the chance to be here with you. I think of 
the children here today who will spend most of their lives in the next 
century. The youngest among them will not even remember the 20th 
century. It is possible, with medical advances, that they may glimpse 
the 22nd century.
    For them, we must do our duty to enhance freedom and opportunity at 
home, to strengthen the bonds of our own Union as we grow more diverse, 
to advance the causes of democracy and human rights, prosperity, and 
peace, around the world. We must strengthen our own freedom by 
maintaining America's role in leading the world. That is the central 
lesson of the 20th century: We abdicate responsibility at our peril. To 
do so now would be to renounce the sacrifice of 10 generations of 
Americans.

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    Yet, often today, we hear voices urging us to abandon our 
obligations to the multinational organizations we did so much to create 
or to the causes of peace we are winning in cooperation with our allies, 
as in Bosnia. Too often we hear calls for actions in our foreign policy 
which would isolate us from our allies without achieving our objectives.
    As the world grows smaller and smaller for the children here and we 
become more and more interconnected with our neighbors in every way, we 
must strengthen the ties that bind free people, work with those who 
share our values and really want to share our burden. Of course, we must 
always be prepared to act alone when our values and our interests demand 
it. But whenever we can, we ought to work with our friends to make a 
better world together.
    We can make the 21st century a century of peace. We can write a new 
chapter of unprecedented possibility and prosperity in our Nation's 
history. In so doing, we can extend the glory of the patriots who lie 
here, missing from our lives but eternally present in our memories. My 
fellow Americans, on this Memorial Day, let us commit ourselves to a 
future worthy of their sacrifice.
    Thank you, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. in the Amphitheater at Arlington 
National Cemetery. In his remarks, he referred to John C. (Jack) 
Metzler, superintendent, Arlington National Cemetery; and Capt. George 
D. Cooper, USN, chaplain, Naval District Washington.