Midafternoon pause helps Americans remember heroes

Clinton: Memorial Day more than a day off

May 29, 2000
Web posted at: 7:26 p.m. EDT (2326 GMT)

In this story: New talks in search for war dead The day 'when the swimming pools open' D-Day Memorial partly unveiled RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As a uniformed Marine trumpeter sounded "Taps" from a White House balcony, President Clinton joined other Americans in stopping for a moment Monday afternoon to honor the nation's war dead.

Clinton stood with head bowed, golf cap over his heart, as he listened from a private putting green on the White House lawn.

The president had earlier described the somber piece of music as "our national requiem" that would be played for "America's fallen heroes."

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During his speech at Arlington National Cemetery, where he also helped place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, Clinton urged all Americans to use the afternoon's moment of remembrance to reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day.

In his address, Clinton also said the United States and North Korea will soon resume negotiations over the search for Americans lost during the Korean War, which began 50 years ago next month.

He said negotiations will resume in early June in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"The United States will always honor and never forsake its fallen heroes, and we will not abandon their families," Clinton said.

The effort to find and identify American war dead, primarily from the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, demonstrates "our commitment to seek the fullest possible accounting," Clinton said.

After months of stalemate, North Korea agreed earlier this month to resume talks on excavating an area that U.S. officials believe contains remains of several hundred Americans killed in the Korean War.

If the talks lead to a U.S. excavation project, it would mark a resumption of recovery operations halted last year. At that time, the Pentagon balked at a North Korean demand for a new program of American humanitarian donations.

The area targeted for U.S. recovery operations is near Unsan, a site of major battles between elements of the U.S. Army's 8th Cavalry Regiment and Chinese troops who had swept south across the Yalu River in early November of 1950 in a surprise offensive.

The Pentagon believes more than 500 sets of remains could be recovered in this area.

Since 1996, U.S. recovery operations in North Korea have yielded 42 sets of remains. More than 8,000 servicemen are still missing from the war -- many from the battles with Chinese troops in late 1950.

The "National Moment of Remembrance" was scheduled Monday as each time zone marked 3 p.m.

"It's for the purpose of allowing each one of us to pause for a moment ... and think for 60 seconds about those who died for this nation's freedom," Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West told CNN.

Federal departments and agencies are expected to observe the moment, and Secretary of Defense William Cohen called on all Americans to do the same.

"Too many people have seen Memorial Day as simply a time for a day off from school, a day off from work, perhaps a family get-together ... without thinking about the freedoms that we enjoy," he told CNN.

"We live and sleep under this blanket of freedom that's been purchased by the blood of so many millions of Americans, and we want to be mindful of that as we enjoy our families and enjoy this day of peace," Cohen said.

The humanitarian organization No Greater Love started the National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day in 1997, to encourage Americans to consider the true meaning of the holiday.

This year, President Clinton and Congress joined together, urging Americans to make "a new national commitment to put memorial back in Memorial Day."

It's important that younger Americans, who've never known war, understand the true significance of the holiday, West said. "A group of children were asked, 'What does Memorial Day mean?' And they said, 'It's when the swimming pools open.'"

"In many respects across this nation, Memorial Day has become a time when families have a little quality time together. And I don't think those who died to defend this nation would begrudge families that quality time. But Memorial Day is for the purpose of honoring those who died in service to the nation, so a moment of silence gives us all an opportunity to remember them and what they stood (for) and what they died for," West said.

During graduation ceremonies at Georgetown University's law school, retired Gen. Colin Powell praised Vietnam and Korean War veterans for their sacrifices in unpopular wars.

"These two wars claimed the lives of over 100,000 young Americans who were doing their duty," Powell told 1,000 graduates.

"In one case, they saved a nation from communism that has become a thriving, wealthy democracy," Powell said of South Korea. "In the other we lost the war and tyranny prevailed."

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the government installed in Vietnam after the war cannot last. "We may yet see that our ideals prevailed in Vietnam as well," he said.

Elsewhere on Memorial Day, a portion of a national D-Day Memorial was unveiled in Bedford, Virginia, honoring Allied troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944 during World War II.

Bedford, a rural farming community near Roanoke, with a population of 3,200 that year, was hit harder than most by the invasion. It lost 23 of its 35 soldiers in the fighting, the most casualties per capita from any U.S. community.

The $12 million memorial honors the 6,603 Americans killed along the coast of France in the D-Day invasion of Nazi-held Europe. A total of 9,758 Allied soldiers died.

During Monday's ceremony, 13 flags were raised, representing the 13 nations that participated in the invasion. A 44-foot granite arch and a sculpture, "Death on Shore," depicting a lone fallen soldier on the beach, were unveiled.

"I think there are a few days in our history that should never be forgotten," Jeannie Schulz told about 4,000 people who endured chilly, intermittent rain to witness the unveiling.

"Perhaps at times we have too many monuments, too many holidays and things of this kind, but D-Day is not one of them. It is one of the days we should never forget," she said.

Schulz, widow of "Peanuts" cartoonist and World War II veteran Charles Schulz, took over as campaign chairman of the National D-Day Foundation after her husband died in February.

A contribution from "Saving Private Ryan" director Steven Spielberg will be used to build the memorial's theater. It will be named for the director's father, Arnold Spielberg, a World War II veteran who flew Army Air Corps missions as a radio operator in Burma.

Dedication of the completed memorial is scheduled for June 6, 2001, the 57th anniversary of the invasion.

White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace, Correspondent Kate Snow and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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