AS ALL America pauses today to pay tribute to the brave men and women who have given their lives in our country's defense over the past two centuries, and to pray for a lasting peace, Mrs. Nixon and I join in that homage and in those prayers.
Though we observe Memorial Day in a far country, our hearts are very much with our own countrymen, the honored dead and the hopeful living alike. Our purpose in the Soviet Union is to open a new era of negotiation and cooperation between our two great powers. We seek a world where no more men need die for peace, but where instead all men may live in peace.
Each American in his way has much to contribute, through thought and action, to the building of such a world. We can make no more fitting resolve on this day, than a resolve to press forward to that goal.
Note: The statement was released at Moscow, U.S.S.R.
Richard Nixon, Memorial Day Statement Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/254862