Warm greetings to everyone observing the Vietnamese Lunar New Year as you welcome the Year of the Rat.
This ancient annual festival unites people of Vietnamese heritage across America and around the globe in an exuberant celebration of hope and new beginnings. Family and friends gather to renew the bonds of love and to rejoice in the rich cultural traditions of Vietnam. The joys of the coming year are anticipated with a flurry of fireworks, flowers, decorations, and feasting.
Tet is a fitting occasion for us to reflect on the many gifts that Vietnamese Americans have brought to our national life—among them a reverence for family, an unquenchable optimism, and an unwavering determination to make tomorrow better than today. Let us rejoice together in this season of renewal and resolve to work for a future of harmony and prosperity for us all.
Best wishes for a new year of happiness, health, freedom, and peace.
BILL CLINTON
NOTE: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on February 16.
William J. Clinton, Message on the Observance of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/222893