Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Selection of a Task Force on the Health and Education Needs of the People of South Vietnam.
THE United States has a twofold objective in Vietnam--not only to help the Republic of Vietnam win its war against aggression but also to lay the groundwork for meaningful and durable peace.
The members of this mission will bring professional competence to the work of the health and education task force. This can only be the beginning of what must be a continuing effort on the part of both governments to give new promise and new purpose to the lives of the Vietnamese people.
Note: The President's statement was made public as part of a White House release announcing the selection of a task force, headed by Secretary Gardner, to study the health and education needs of the people of South Vietnam. The release stated that the task force would depart for Saigon on March 12 to help plan an intensified attack on hunger, ignorance, and disease in Vietnam in accordance with a joint pledge made by President Johnson and the leaders of the Republic of Vietnam (see Items 54-56).
The release noted that the task force would be composed of 15 leading experts in health and education, among them Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Francis Keppel, Assistant Secretary for Education, HEW, and S. Douglass Cater, Jr., Special Assistant to the President. The release pointed out that the task force would be the second to visit Vietnam since the Honolulu Conference on February 7 and 8, a team of agricultural experts headed by Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman having arrived in Saigon on February 11.
The full text of the White House release (with names of the other task force members) is published in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 2, p. 331).
See also Item 85.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Selection of a Task Force on the Health and Education Needs of the People of South Vietnam. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238477