Clinton to Award Medals of Freedom

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 3 -- 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 today that he will recognize theindividuals at a White House ceremony on Wednesday. Established byPresident Truman as a wartime honor, the Presidential Medal ofFreedom was reintroduced by President Kennedy as way to honorcivilian service.

The award recipients are: Sen. John Chafee, who died last year, served as a Marinelieutenant in the World War II battle at Guadalcanal and fought inthe 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 toexpand health care and reform foster care. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who as supreme allied commander ofNATO led the alliance to victory in Kosovo. Clark graduated firstin his class at West Point, served in Vietnam and helped negotiatethe Bosnia peace accords. Jesse Jackson, considered both an asset and a pest by the Clintonadministration, frequently is invited to White House events eventhough he flirted briefly with the idea of running for theDemocratic presidential nomination. Jackson was with the Clintonfamily after the president told the nation of his extramaritalaffair with Monica Lewinsky, but drew the ire of Clinton adviserslast year when he ignored their warnings and went to Yugoslavia toretrieve three American soldiers held as prisoners. Retired Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefsof Staff, who also served as commander of the Middle East Force inthe Persian Gulf, head of Navy plans and policy and commander inchief of the U.S. Pacific Command. Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s DefenseFund. She was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi barand first black woman elected to the Yale University Corp.