Clinton to award 15 Presidential Medals of Freedom

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 15 Americans Wednesday afternoon in an East Room ceremony.

The medal is the highest civilian award and may be awarded only by a U.S. president to individuals who have made contributions "especially meritorious to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Among those who will receive the medal are Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Gen. Wesley Clark, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. William Crowe, Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island (posthumously) and Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund.

Former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern will also receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as will Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan D-New York, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., anti-drug crusader James Edward Burke, religious leader Monsignor George C. Higgins, union activist Millie Jeffrey, AIDS research pioneer Dr. Mathilde Krim, civil rights activist Cruz Reynoso, author and civil rights supporter Rev. Gardner C. Taylor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal from President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

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