Clinton Unveils Stamps Citing MIAs, POWs

In a Memorial Day ceremony on the White House lawn, President Clinton unveiled a new postage stamp that commemorates soldiers who are still missing or were imprisoned. The stamp shows two military tags embossed with “POW & MIA--Never Forgotten.”

Clinton predicted that Vietnam and Laos will continue to work with U.S. officials to account for MIAs and POWs, but he didn’t back away from his longstanding insistence that Hanoi provide the “fullest possible accounting” before full diplomatic ties can be established with Vietnam.

The post office in Andersonville, Ga., the site of a Civil War POW camp, was open Monday for special cancellations of the stamp. Postmaster Jim Atkins said he sold 4,000 stamps by 11 a.m.

In Boston, Robert White, a World War II veteran, noted that with the 50th anniversary of the war’s end this year, “we have to remember that an awful lot of people paid an awful big sacrifice.”

In Hialeah, Fla., Fred Butler, 70, stood at somber attention during a ceremony at a park. He honored the memory of fellow airmen who died during World War II, and his son, Fred III, who died in Vietnam at age 20.

“We used to have about three times as many people here,” he said. “Now, people say, it’s a day off, let’s go to the beach. Even when I was still working, this was never just a day off for me.”

In Philadelphia, funeral home director Robert Walker led a procession of more than two dozen hearses through the city’s most crime-plagued neighborhoods to pay tribute to children who lost their lives on the streets.

“Young people have to wake up now, or rest in peace. This holiday has to go beyond honoring fallen veterans,” he said. “It is also a day to remember our young brothers and sisters, the ones who never got the chance to become soldiers or sailors. All they got to be were statistics.”