Clinton To Award Medal of Freedom
09:33 PM ET 08/03/00
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton will bestow the nation's
highest civilian honor next week on 15 distinguished Americans,
including three senators, an economist, a general, an admiral and
the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Clinton announced Thursday that he will recognize the
individuals at a White House ceremony on Wednesday. Established by
President Truman as a wartime honor, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom was reintroduced by President Kennedy as way to honor
civilian service.
The award recipients are:
- Sen. John Chafee, who died last year, served as a Marine
lieutenant in the World War II battle at Guadalcanal and fought in
the Korean War. He was a state representative in Rhode Island,
governor of Rhode Island and secretary of the Navy. In the Senate,
Chafee was a champion of environmental legislation and worked to
expand health care and reform foster care.
- Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who as supreme allied commander of
NATO led the alliance to victory in Kosovo. Clark graduated first
in his class at West Point, served in Vietnam and helped negotiate
the Bosnia peace accords.
- Rev Jessie Jackson, considered both an asset and a pest by the Clinton
administration, frequently is invited to White House events even
though he flirted briefly with the idea of running for the
Democratic presidential nomination. Jackson was with the Clinton
family after the president told the nation of his extramarital
affair with Monica Lewinsky, but drew the ire of Clinton advisers
last year when he ignored their warnings and went to Yugoslavia to
retrieve three American soldiers held as prisoners.
- Retired Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, who also served as commander of the Middle East Force in
the Persian Gulf, head of Navy plans and policy and commander in
chief of the U.S. Pacific Command.
- Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense
Fund. She was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar
and first black woman elected to the Yale University Corp.
- John Kenneth Galbraith, a leading economist, taught economics
for nearly 30 years and has written more than 30 books. During
World War II, he was largely responsible for the Office of Price
Administration's record in controlling inflation. He advised
Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and also served as U.S. Ambassador
to India.
- Monsignor George Higgins, adjunct lecturer at Catholic
University, has spent more than 50 years working to ensure worker
justice. He has been honored several times by labor groups and once
was described as the ``labor movement's parish priest.''
- Mildred ``Millie'' Jeffrey, a women's labor and Democratic
Party activist, was the first female to direct a department of the
United Auto Workers. She worked for the UAW from 1945 to 1976 and
served on commissions during the Kennedy and Carter administrations.
- Mathilde Krim, who founded the AIDS Medical Foundation in 1983,
was one of the earliest leaders in the effort to find a cure for
AIDS. She has worked on topics ranging from cancer research to
human genetics and her foundation, which joined with the American
Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, has poured millions of
dollars into AIDS research.
- George McGovern, a Democratic nominee for president in 1972,
currently is the U.S. representative to the United Nations' Food
and Agricultural Organization, where he is helping to develop a
plan to address the food needs of 500 million people 'half the
world's underfed' by 2015. He was elected to the House in 1956. In
the Senate, he led the expansion of the food stamp program.
- Cruz Reynoso, a private lawyer, teaches law and serves as vice
chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 1982, after six
years on the California Court of Appeals, he became the first
Latino to serve on the California Supreme Court. He also has served
as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights.
- The Rev. Gardner Taylor, an author and early civil rights
supporter, has been called the ``dean of the nation's black
preachers. Under his leadership, his church, Concord Baptist Church
of Christ in New York City, became the most prestigious black
church in America.
- Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, has
devoted his life to finding evidence to prosecute Nazi war
criminals. In 1977, he founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which
works to fight bigotry and anti-Semitism. President Carter
presented him with the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 1980 and he
received the French Legion of Honor in 1986.
- Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan has represented New York in the
Senate since 1977. A strong supporter of Social Security, he is the
only person to serve in the Cabinet of sub-Cabinet, including two
ambassadorial appointments, of four successive presidential
administrations, Kennedy through Ford.
- James Edward Burke, former chairman of Johnson & Johnson, is
chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. He has helped
develop the National Youth Media Campaign and worked to discourage
young people from using drugs.
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