    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 37 (Monday, September 20, 1999)]
    [Pages 1753-1754]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7221--National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 1999

    September 15, 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

    [[Page 1754]]

    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.
        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.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., September 17,
    1999]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on
    September 20.