Memorial Day 1953 – President Eisenhower

It was sixty-nine years ago this Memorial Day that President Eisenhower officially proclaimed Memorial Day to be a National Day of Remembrance.

A day of remembrance for those who fell at the end of the Civil War, the day has come to symbolize a time of remembrance to those Americans who fell in all wars with a one minute observance to be held at 11:00 am on the last day of May.

Here is President Eisenhower‘s declaration as read by actor Robert Montgomery for Memorial Day in 1953.

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation
Whereas the bodies of our war dead lie buried in hallowed plots throughout the land, and it has long been our custom to decorate their graves on Memorial Day in token of our respect for them as beloved friends and kinsmen and of our aspiration that war may be removed from the earth forever; and

Whereas it is fitting that, while remembering the sacrifices of our countrymen, we join in united prayers to Almighty God for peace on earth; and

Whereas the Congress, in a joint resolution approved May 11, 1950, provided that Memorial Day should thenceforth be set aside nationally as a day of prayer for permanent peace and requested that the President issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day in that manner:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, Saturday, May 30, 1953, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning at eleven o’clock in the morning of that day, Eastern Daylight Saving Time, as a period in which all the people of the Nation, each according to his religious faith, may unite in solemn prayer.

Let us make that day one of twofold dedication. Let us reverently honor those who have fallen in war, and rededicate ourselves through prayer to the cause of peace, to the end that the day may come when we shall never have another war—never another Unknown Soldier.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Lest we all forget . . .

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