Proclamation 3576—Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 1964

Whereas April 14, 1964, marks the seventy-fourth anniversary of the establishment by the American Republics of the inter-American system which is now known as the Organization of American States; and

Whereas relations between the United States and the other American Republics are of utmost concern to this Nation since we believe that mutual problems of the various republics must be resolved in a spirit of friendship and understanding; and

Whereas the United States is firmly and traditionally committed to the concept that every American nation has the right and duty to govern itself, free from outside dictation or coercion from any quarter, and that every citizen of the Americas has the right to speak his views, worship God in his own way, and participate in the political life of his nation; and

Whereas mutual efforts to increase the solidarity and well-being of the peoples of the Americas over the years have evolved into an Alliance for Progress; and

Whereas the United States, in its traditional spirit of cooperation and amity, has pledged the energies of this Nation to the achievement of the common goals expressed in the Charter of Punta del Este by engaging in a relentless war upon poverty, social injustice, and tyranny:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, April 14, 1964, as Pan American Day and the week beginning April 12 and ending April 18 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 appropriate officials of all other areas under the United States flag to issue similar proclamations.

Mindful of the vast tasks that still lie before us if the material progress and the social advancement of the Americas are to match the spiritual and cultural achievements of the republics of this Hemisphere, I urge all citizens of the United States and all interested organizations to join their Government in helping to make both Pan American Day and Pan American Week occasions for the recognition of past achievements, and for this Nation's rededication to the ideals of the inter-American system, and to the principles and objectives of the Charter of the Organization of American States and the Charter of Punta del Este. For on the maintenance of these ideals and the achievement of these objectives depends the future of freedom, human dignity, and national independence in this Hemisphere.

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 Second day of March in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-eighth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

Dean Rusk,

Secretary of State.