Proclamations

Proclamation 4373--Fixing terminal date respecting service in the Armed Forces entitling persons to certain veterans benefits

Source: The provisions of Proclamation 4373 of May 7, 1975, appear at 40 FR 20257, 3 CFR, 1971-1975 Comp., p. 477, unless otherwise noted.

The Congress has provided that entitlement to certain veterans benefits be limited to persons serving in the Armed Forces during the period, beginning August 5, 1964, referred to as the Vietnam era. The President is authorized to determine the last day on which a person must have entered the active military, naval, or air service of the United States in order for such service to qualify as service during that period.

The signing of the cease-fire agreements and implementing protocols on January 27, 1973, between the United States of America and the Republic of Vietnam, on the one hand, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam on the other hand, has terminated active participation by the Armed Forces of the United States in the Vietnam conflict.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 101(29) of Title 38 of the United States Code, do hereby proclaim, for the purposes of said Section 101(29), that May 7, 1975, is designated as the last day of the "Vietnam era."

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth.