Proclamation 3850—Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 1968.

On Memorial Day, we remember our debt to those who have died so that we might live in freedom.

We remember also those Americans who today, at home and in the lands of our allies, stand guard against all who threaten our freedom.

On this Memorial Day, we who remain free by the sacrifice of the dead and the service of the living will requite our debt to both with thoughts and acts of gratitude and love.

And we will gain renewed inspiration from their sacrifice--to push forward with the task of trying to bring about a just and enduring peace by every reasonable means.

The Congress, by joint resolution of May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period during such day when the people of the United States might unite in such supplication.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Memorial Day, Thursday, May 30, 1968, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at eleven o'clock in the morning of that day as a time to unite in such prayer.

I urge the press, radio, television, and all other information media to cooperate in this observance.

And I urge all Americans, wherever they may be on this designated day, to join their prayers to the Almighty to bestow upon this Nation the blessing of peace restored and lasting among all the nations of the world.

On this Memorial Day--as a special mark of respect to the memory of the gallant Americans who have sacrificed their lives in Vietnam, so that this Nation might live to be for all people everywhere a symbol of peace and justice and freedom--I direct that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff during the entire day, instead of during the customary forenoon period, on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels of the Federal Government throughout the United States and all areas under its jurisdiction and control.

I also request the Governors of the States and of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the appropriate officials of all local units of government to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on all public buildings during that entire day, and request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the same period.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixtyeight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON