Your Majesty:
I welcome the opportunity to extend my greetings and best wishes and those of the people of the United States. My country has watched with great interest and satisfaction as the tide of freedom has rolled across the African continent. We are pleased that the peoples of Africa are moving with dignity and assurance to take their rightful place in world affairs, and we welcome the many contributions Africa is making to the building of a better world community.
We in the United States are dedicated to the same goals as the peoples of Africa-justice, freedom, and peace. Under our late President, John F. Kennedy, the United States made significant advances toward the attainment of those goals. We will continue to work toward those same objectives under my Administration. We want to help build a world in which all men have a better opportunity to improve their lives, both spiritually and materially. Thus, we will continue to press for equal rights for all-both in my country and abroad--and we will continue to assist the world's new and emerging nations in their efforts to strengthen their foundations of freedom and independence.
Zanzibar and the United States have had cordial relations for many decades, and we look forward to continuing warm relations for centuries to come. We in the United States congratulate you in Zanzibar as you assume the proud rights and responsibilities of independent nationhood.
Sincerely,
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
[His Majesty Seyyid Jamshid bin Abdulla, Sultan of Zanzibar]
Note: The message was delivered by Governor Philip H. Hoff of Vermont, Personal Representative of the President and head of the U.S. Special Mission to the Zanzibar Celebrations, held December 9--11.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Message to the Sultan on the Occasion of the Independence of Zanzibar. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238837