Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report on the International Cultural Exchange Program.

To the Congress of the United States:

Pursuant to the provisions of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (Public Law 87-256, the Fulbright-Hays Act) I transmit herewith the annual report on the International Cultural Exchange Program for the Fiscal Year 1963.

This report deals with the influence for peace and progress which exchange-of-persons activities have become in the world of the 1960s.

The varying stages of nationhood in the world today require a varying range of relationships on our part. I am convinced that exchanges of persons are uniquely appropriate and unusually effective activities for the needs and opportunities of these times. Such exchanges touch our societies at many points--involving students, teachers, professors, research scholars, athletes, government leaders, judges, economists, labor leaders, social workers, actors, authors, coaches, and many others--a broad panorama of professions and the arts.

In the single year covered by this report, some 10,000 people were overseas from this country, or here from other countries, in the friendly, constructive interchange the United States now sponsors. This exchange involved more than 130 countries and territories.

Congress can take particular and proper pride in this program. Since World War II--with full bipartisan support, as in P.L. 87-256--Congress has fathered and fostered this activity. Many members of both Houses have a special knowledge of the vital role which exchanges now play in our relations and understandings with other nations. All along the way, the articulate leadership of the Congress has been a major strength for the program's success.

The warm and strong support of the American people likewise deserves our praise. The volunteer services and family hospitality which our citizens and communities give to thousands of students and visitors from other countries is of incalculable value to the interest of international understanding.

I hope that our exchange activities, public and private, may grow. An enlarging investment means an enlarging return--not merely from the understanding others may acquire of us, but from the understanding we acquire of those with whom we share the hopes of these times and the destiny of this planet.

We in the United States have an abiding faith in the value of education to our own society's success, and we are affirming that faith with a new and strengthened commitment to education in America. But education as a force for freedom, justice and rationality knows no national boundaries-it is the great universal force for good. Our efforts in the exchange programs give that force added strength and justified support. For when we help other peoples achieve their highest and best aspirations, we truly work for understanding, for progress, and for peace. In this work, let us continue with new enthusiasm and confidence, for out of the understandings among peoples will grow peace among nations.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

February 1, 1965