[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

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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.