National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 1996

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Title 3--
The President

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.

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.