Proclamation 4389—Veterans Day, 1975

Of all of the important days to be celebrated during America's Bicentennial, none is more worthy of special observance than Veterans Day. Had not the patriotic men and women, to whom we pay deserved and grateful tribute on Veterans Day, heard and answered freedom's call during the past 200 years, there would be no American Bicentennial of freedom.

From Lexington and Concord in 1775 to the present, these courageous, selfless patriots served and sacrificed and died so that their fellow-citizens could live under a government that still is in the full tide of successful experiment and still is the world's best hope.

It is both fitting and proper that a legal holiday, designated by the Congress (5 U.S.C. 6103 (a) ), be set aside to honor our veterans.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby invite and urge you, my fellow-Americans, to observe Monday, October 27, 1975, as Veterans Day. I commend public ceremonies as well as private contemplation as a meaningful expression of gratitude to our veterans for the priceless heritage of freedom which they have bequeathed to us.

I suggest that disabled veterans in Veterans Administration hospitals throughout the country will welcome and appreciate a Veterans Day visit. And I ask that you help to evidence America's special concern for our returned Vietnam era veterans by making Veterans Day, 1975, the beginning of a renewed personal effort to assist these deserving Americans in achieving the fullest and fastest possible readjustment to civilian life.

Finally, I call upon the appropriate officials of Government to arrange for the display of the flag of the United States on this day. I request officials of Federal, State and local governments to support its observance and I urge schools, churches, unions and civic and patriotic organizations to participate in appropriate public ceremonies throughout the country.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth.

GERALD R. FORD