Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 3.djvu/1230

 98 STAT. 3602

PROCLAMATION 5206—MAY 31, 1984

calling upon officials of the government to display the flag on all government buildings on that day. The Congress also, by joint resolution of August 2, 1956 (36 U.S.C. 159), requested the President to proclaim the week beginning September 17th and ending September 23rd of each year as Constitution Week. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, call upon appropriate government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Citizenship Day, September 17, 1984. I urge Federal, State and local officials, as well as leaders of civic, educational and religious organizations to conduct ceremonies and programs that day to commemorate the occasion. I also proclaim the week beginning September 17 and ending September 23, 1984, as Constitution Week, and I urge all Americans to observe that week with appropriate ceremonies and activities in their schools, churches and other suitable places. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighth. RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 5206 of May 31, 1984

D-Day National Remembrance By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower made a dramatic announcement from London: "People of Western Europe: A landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force... The hour of your liberation is approaching." Operation Overlord, the invasion of Adolf Hitler's "Fortress Europe" forty years ago, thrust approximately 130,000 American and Allied troops under General Eisenhower's command onto beaches now known to history as Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword along the coast of Normandy, France. Another 23,000 British and American airborne forces were parachuted or taken by glider to secure critical inland areas. Some 11,000 sorties were flown by allied aircraft, and innumerable sabotage operations were carried out by Resistance forces behind the lines. On that day and in the ensuing weeks, the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the assault forces, and the men and women who supported the landing, displayed great skill, unwavering tenacity, and courage. The Americans who landed at Omaha Beach—where sharp bluffs, strong defenses, and the presence of a powerful German division produced enormous difficulties—wrote an especially brave and noble chapter in the military history of the United States. Opposed by bitter enemy resistance, the landing forces gained the beaches at great sacrifice, pushed inland, and expanded their beachheads. Feats of

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