Proclamation 4083—Veterans Day, 1971

There are no persons more deeply devoted to peace than those who have directly experienced the horrors of war. And there is no group of Americans who have done more to prepare the way for lasting peace than those who have actively resisted the forces of aggression and tyranny as members of our Armed Forces.

Veterans Day, 1971, affords us a special opportunity to pay tribute to our Nation's veterans, and to express our gratitude and acknowledge our debt for all they have given to their country. But our observance of Veterans Day must not stop there. For we honor their devotion best when we renew our own devotion to their ideals: to courage and selflessness and loyalty and honor—and, above all, to lasting peace.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon all Americans to join in commemorating Monday, October 25, 1971, as Veterans Day. I ask that all Americans join with me in paying tribute on that day to all those who have served this country as members of its Armed Forces in the past and to all those who are performing such service at home and abroad at this hour.

As a mark of our respect for these men and women, I direct the appropriate officials of the Government to arrange for the display of the flag of the United States on all public buildings on Veterans Day and I request all Government officials to cooperate with civic and patriotic organizations in conducting appropriate public ceremonies throughout the land.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-sixth.

RICHARD NIXON