Memorandum Urging Support of the Red Cross

Memorandum For Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

I have today designated March, 1971, as Red Cross Month. As President of the United States and Honorary Chairman of the American National Red Cross, I extend my personal support to the vital humanitarian activities of the Red Cross. I know that all of you as citizens and leaders will want to do likewise, and that you will want to cooperate in informing every Federal employee and every member of the Armed Forces of the many ways through which he or she can render service and reap benefits by supporting the Red Cross.

In every community across the Nation, men and women who work for the Federal Government or serve in the Armed Forces will have opportunities to help the Red Cross toward its 1971 national fund goal of $133,978,000, or to contribute their services as volunteers, or to take part in Red Cross blood donor programs. With your help in making them aware of these opportunities, they will, I am confident, respond generously.

Recent efforts of the Red Cross have brought relief to victims of Hurricane Celia and of flooding in Puerto Rico. Around the world the Red Cross has helped American servicemen in Vietnam and 29 other countries; has taken a leading role in urging adherence to the Geneva conventions in the treatment of American prisoners of war in North Vietnam; and has ministered to refugees from the civil strife in Jordon and from East Pakistan's catastrophic cyclone. It adds up to a titanic achievement in easing human suffering, and summons all of us in the Federal Government to set an example for the Nation with an outpouring of support during March.

RICHARD NIXON