Both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney gave speeches honoring military veterans on November 11, Veterans Day. Yet rather than take a short breather from his usual rants about the Bush administration to celebrate veterans' service and sacrifice, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann chose to portray the president as a callous commander-in-chief for not laying a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day.
But a review of the principal speakers over the history of the wreath-laying and accompanying speech shows that U.S. presidents often send other dignitaries (such as the Vice President or Secretary of Defense) to perform the honor of laying the wreath and addressing the assembled audience in the adjacent amphitheater.
Here's how Olbermann's staff teased his first item for the November 12 "Countdown":
Veteran's [sic] Day: It is the most solemn and ceremonial of remembrances for our fallen dead and surviving soldiers, dating from the time of our first grim venture into international combat in World War One, the beginning of our role as, if not the policemen of the world, then rather its moral force. The ceremonial laying of the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Ceremony on Veterans' Day. And where was the President of the United States? In Waco, Texas. Our fifth story on the Countdown: the Commander in Chief who has sent our troops to their deaths on nonsense intelligence throughout a presidency of loopholes, who has described his own grief at the soldiers' suffering so much he has made a brand name out of it, who has exploited every wound as an opportunity to sell his agenda of fear and his politics of hate...He couldn't be bothered to lay the wreath on Veterans' Day. Why does George W. Bush hate the troops?
Of course, Olbermann's bloggers failed to note what Bush was doing in Waco: speaking at an American Legion post to honor fallen soldiers. Olbermann himself did note the American Legion speech in the open of his program, but scoffed that the speech as insufficiently honoring American servicemen and women.:
The president skips the laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.... Didn't bother to show up. Then tried to pretend an event remembering just four servicemen in Waco, Texas, was a quote, "National Fallen Soldiers Memorial Ceremony."
Olbermann then griped that on Veterans Day, the veterans are "photo-ops" and that President Bush "doesn't even show up to the photo-op." At one point Olbermann complained that Bush could easily have flown back to Washington from his Texas ranch. [My, how quickly he's come from toeing NBC's "Green Week" line!]
The wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns typically precedes a speech by a high-ranking federal government official or VIP in the adjacent Memorial Amphitheater. Generally the principal speaker is the same person who lays the memorial wreath.
A review of the government's list of the principal speakers at Veterans Day speeches from their inception in 1954 shows that Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon did not speak at Arlington on Veterans Days occuring during the Vietnam War.
President Eisenhower, himself a former general and no troops-hater he, never spoke on Veterans Day. Only President Clinton monopolized the November 11 speeches at Arlington during his presidency during all eight years of his tenure in office.:
Veterans Day National Ceremony
Host Organizations and Principal Speakers
at Arlington National Cemetery
1954 - 2007
| Year | Speaker | Title | Remarks | Host Veterans Service Organization |
| 2008 | To Be Determined | Military Chaplains Association of the USA | ||
| 2007 | Richard B. Cheney | Vice President of the United States | Marine Corps League | |
| 2006 | George W. Bush | President of the United States | Military Order of the Purple Heart | |
| 2005 | Richard B. Cheney | Vice President of the United States | The American Legion | |
| 2004 | George W. Bush | President of the United States | Non Commissioned Officers Association | |
| 2003 | George W. Bush | President of the United States | Army & Navy Union | |
| 2002 | George W. Bush | President of the United States | Blinded Veterans Association | |
| 2001 | Richard B. Cheney | President of the United States | AMVETS | |
| 2000 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Vietnam Veterans of America | |
| 1999 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States | |
| 1998 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Catholic War Veterans | |
| 1997 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | American Ex-Prisoners of War | |
| 1996 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Jewish War Veterans of the USA | |
| 1995 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Polish Legion of American Veterans | |
| 1994 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Disabled American Veterans | |
| 1993 | William J. Clinton | President of the United States | Congressional Medal of Honor Society | |
| 1992 | Anthony J. Principi | Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs | not available | Legion of Valor |
| 1991 | George Bush | President of the United States | Paralyzed Veterans of America | |
| 1990 | Richard B. Cheney | Secretary of Defense | not available | Marine Corps League |
| 1989 | Gen. Colin L. Powell | Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff | Veterans of World War I | |
| 1988 | Ronald Reagan | President of the United States | Military Order of the Purple Heart | |
| 1987 | Caspar Weinberger | Secretary of Defense | not available | The American Legion |
| 1986 | Caspar Weinberger | Secretary of Defense | not available | Blinded Veterans Association |
| 1985 | Ronald Reagan | President of the United States | AMVETS | |
| 1984 | Caspar Weinberger | Secretary of Defense | not available | Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States |
| 1983 | Harry N. Walters | Administrator of Veterans Administration | not available | Disabled American Veterans |
| 1982 | Caspar Weinberger | Secretary of Defense | not available | Congressional Medal of Honor Society |
| 1981 | Caspar Weinberger | Secretary of Defense | not available | Legion of Valor |
| 1980 | Max Cleland | Administrator of Veterans Administration | Paralyzed Veterans of America | |
| 1979 | Max Cleland | Administrator of Veterans Administration | Marine Corps League | |
| 1978 | Jimmy Carter | President of the United States | Veterans of World War I | |
| 1977 | Jimmy Carter | President of the United States | Military Order of the Purple Heart | |
| 1976 | Donald H. Rumsfeld | Secretary of Defense | not available | The American Legion |
| 1975 | Gerald R. Ford | President of the United States | AMVETS | |
| 1974 | Gerald R. Ford | President of the United States | Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States | |
| 1973 | Donald E. Johnson | Administrator of Veterans Administration | not available | Disabled American Veterans |
| 1972 | Donald E. Johnson | Administrator of Veterans Administration | not available | Congressional Medal of Honor Society |
| 1971 | Spiro Agnew | Vice President of the United States | not available | Legion of Valor |
| 1970 | Donald E. Johnson | Administrator of Veterans Administration | not available | Marine Corps League |
| 1969 | David Packard | Deputy Secretary of Defense | not available | Military Order of the Purple Heart |
| 1968 | Gen. John P. McConnell | Chief of Staff, USAF | not available | The American Legion |
| 1967 | Paul H. Nitze | Secretary of Defense | not available | Veterans of World War I |
| 1966 | Gen. Wallace M. Greene, Jr. | Commandant, USMC | not available | AMVETS |
| 1965 | Hubert Humphrey | Vice President of the United States | not available | Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States |
| 1964 | John S. Gleason, Jr. | Administrator of Veterans Administration | not available | Disabled American Veterans |
| 1963 | Gen. David Shoup | USMC | not available | Congressional Medal of Honor Society |
| 1962 | Robert S. McNamara | Secretary of Defense | not available | United Spanish War Veterans |
| 1961 | John F. Kennedy | President of the United States | Legion of Valor | |
| 1960 | Gen. Lemuel Shepard, Jr. | USMC | not available | Marine Corps League |
| 1959 | Gen. Albert Wedermayer | U.S. Army, Retired | not available | The American Legion |
| 1958 | Gen. David Sarnoff | USAR | not available | Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States |
| 1957 | Col. Joe Foss | Governor of South Dakota | not available | Disabled American Veterans |
| 1956 | James Stewart | USAF Reserve | not available | AMVETS |
| 1955 | Herbert Hoover | Former President of the United States | not available | United Spanish War Veterans |
| 1954 | H. E. Talbot | Secretary of the Air Force | not available | The American Legion |
