Proclamation 3704—Cancer Control Month, 1966

Every two minutes cancer strikes a man or a woman or a child in this country.

It ranks second in the causes of all deaths.

This represents untold human suffering, pain, and hardship, as well as a staggering loss to our economy.

Scientists, physicians, and official and voluntary health agencies, through research and cancer-control programs, have made remarkable progress in reducing this heavy toll. Their efforts deserve the most widespread commendation and encouragement.

Further progress can be made if we unite all our Nation's health resources. Recent advances in biomedical research indicate that an expanded attack on cancer may lead to its ultimate conquest.

The Eighty-ninth Congress has given us the tools for such an expanded attack. It has enacted legislation to promote the establishment of regional medical programs of research, training, and demonstrations of patient care aimed at combatting cancer and other such major diseases.

These programs will enable us to develop new knowledge of cancer and to make available to patients the latest advances in diagnosis and treatment.

Any program for the prevention and control of cancer requires the support and cooperation of all our people. For this reason, the Congress, by a joint resolution of March 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 148), requested the President to issue annually a proclamation setting apart the month of April as Cancer Control Month.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of April 1966 as Cancer Control Month; and I invite the Governors of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to issue similar proclamations.

I also ask the medical and allied health professions, the communications industries, and all other interested persons and groups to unite during the appointed month in public reaffirmation of this Nation's efforts to control cancer.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this fourteenth day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninetieth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

DEAN RUSK

Secretary of State