NATIONAL KOREAN WAR VETERANS ARMISTICE DAY, 2012
A proclamation by the President of the United States
July 27, 2012
years ago, the Communist invasion of the Republic of Korea summoned a generation
of Americans to serve. From the landings at Inchon to the Pusan Perimeter, from
Heartbreak Ridge to Chosin Reservoir, our forces fought with immeasurable
courage in one of the defining moments of the Cold War. Today, on the 59th
anniversary of the Military Armistice Agreement signed at Panmunjom, we honor
all who served in the Korean War, and we pay lasting tribute to the brave men
and women who gave their lives for our Nation.
years of combat, American service members and allied forces overcame some of
the most unforgiving conditions in modern warfare. They weathered bitter
winters and punishing heat. They fought on with courage and distinction --
often outgunned and outmanned. Many Americans suffered wounds that would never
fully heal. Still more we count among the captured and the missing, and our
resolve to account for Americans who did not come home will never waver. Most
of all, we honor the tens of thousands of Americans who gave their lives
defending a country they had never known and a people they had never met. Their
legacy lives on not only in the hearts of the American people, but in a
Republic of Korea that is free and prosperous; an alliance that is stronger
than ever before; and a world that is safer for their service.
after the Military Armistice Agreement was signed, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower noted that "with special feelings of sorrow -- and of solemn
gratitude -- we think of those who were called upon to lay down their lives in
that far-off land to prove once again that only courage and sacrifice can keep
freedom alive upon the earth." Nearly six decades later, we renew that
call to honor and reflect. Now and forever, let us keep faith with our Korean
War veterans by upholding the ideals they fought to protect, and by supporting
them with the care and respect they so deeply deserve.
THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by
virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim July 27, 2012, as National Korean War
Veterans Armistice Day. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with
appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor our distinguished Korean War
WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of July, in the
year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.
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