Presidential Medal of Freedom
joint-highest civilian award of the United States, bestowed by the President
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the joint-highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President for award of the Medal or any person selected by the President upon his own initiative", and was created to recognize people who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to
the security or national interests of the United States, or
world peace, or
cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."
The award is not limited to U.S. citizens, and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform. It was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, superseding the Medal of Freedom that was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to honor civilian service.
Occasionally, the medal award is further denoted as "with distinction." There are no specific criteria for receiving the award with distinction; Executive Order 11085 simply specifies that the award should come in two degrees, and hence any decision to award the higher degree is entirely at the discretion of the president. In 2017, President Barack Obama stated that receiving the award with distinction indicates "an additional level of veneration" in a class of individuals already held in the highest esteem. As of June 2024, the medal had been awarded with distinction at least 55 times, amounting to approximately 8% of all awards. A total of 674 awards have been given.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the supreme civilian decoration that can be awarded in discretion of the president, whereas its predecessor, the Medal of Freedom, was inferior in precedence to the Medal for Merit; the Medal of Freedom was awarded by any of three Cabinet secretaries, whereas the Medal for Merit was awarded by the president, as is the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Overview
President John F. Kennedy established the presidential version of the decoration in 1963 through Executive Order 11085 (signed February 22, 1963), with unique and distinctive insignia, vastly expanded purpose, and far higher prestige. It was the first U.S. civilian neck decoration and, if awarded with Distinction, is the only U.S. sash and star decoration (the Chief Commander degree of the Legion of Merit—which may be awarded to foreign heads of state only—is a star decoration but without a sash).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Presidential Medal of Freedom” as joint-highest civilian award of the United States, bestowed by the President. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as joint-highest civilian award of the United States, bestowed by the President. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17144. The Library of Congress control number is sh96000696. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963, 1945, 2017 and 2024.
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This entry incorporates text from “Presidential Medal of Freedom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.