John F. Kennedy photo

Proclamation 3452—Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 1962

February 26, 1962


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas April 14, 1962, will be the seventy-second anniversary of the establishment by the American Republics of our inter-American system, now known as the Organization of American States; and

Whereas the people and the Government of the United States are allied with their good neighbors, the other free Republics of this Hemisphere, in their resolution to remain free and their obligation to defend the foundations of freedom; and

Whereas the free peoples of this Hemisphere have likewise joined in an Alliance for Progress with the objective of homes, work and land, health and schools for all citizens, so that freedom may be assured an environment in which it can develop and stay strong; and

Whereas the United States of America throughout these seventy-two years has supported staunchly those ideals of cooperation for the common good and solidarity for the common safeguard, both basic to our inter-American system, through which, in the words of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the peoples of the Americas have developed a faith in freedom and its fulfillment arising "from a common hope and a common design given us by our fathers in differing form but with a simple aim: freedom and security of the individual, which has become the foundation of our peace":

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Saturday, April 14, 1962, as Pan American Day, and the period from April 8 through April 14, 1962, as Pan American Week; and I call upon the Governors of the fifty States of the Union, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Governors of all other areas under the United States flag to issue similar proclamations.

I also urge all United States citizens and interested organizations to participate in commemorating Pan American Day and Pan American Week in view of the importance of inter-American friendship to our own national welfare and that of the neighbor Republics, and in testimony to the circumstances of culture, geography, and history which have allied our destinies as defenders of liberty within law.

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 26th day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

Signature of John F. Kennedy

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

DEAN RUSK,

Secretary of State

John F. Kennedy, Proclamation 3452—Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 1962 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/269345

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