On July 4, 1971, Mrs. Glendon W. Perking and Mrs. Ralph T. Browning, wives of American Prisoners of War in Viet Nam, lighted a torch of freedom that burned until all Americans held as P.O.W.'s by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong were released. The extinguished flame was replaced by an eternal flame of peace, a symbol of the hope of all Americans that mankind will create a world in which there is no war.