For a century now, Americans have set aside one special day to remember those who have given their lives in the Nation's defense.
The battlefields on which they fell span the long generations of our history, from the slopes of Bunker Hill to the A Shau Valley.
The cost of their sacrifice is beyond reckoning. But the result of their sacrifice, and of the service of all their comrades-in-arms, is beyond price: We are a nation; we are united; we are free.
On Memorial Day 1968, we yearn for an end to war, for a time when the guns will be silenced forever and men can live as they wish.
That peace, when it comes, will be the lasting memorial of all who have fought to give it birth, and whose service and sacrifice we honor today.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Memorial Day Message to the Men and Women of the Armed Forces Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237259