Proclamation 3700—American Heart Month, 1966

Heart disease continues to shorten or cripple the lives of thousands of Americans.

Each year, over half of all the deaths in our nation result from this affliction.

Deaths or disabilities inflicted by heart disease which strike men and women of all ages, are both tragic to the victims and costly to our economy.

Yet much of this suffering could be prevented. Heart disease can be conquered.

This goal can be achieved, however, only through the effective mobilization of all our resources, private as well as governmental.

Continued progress in our nation-wide attack on heart disease requires the personal interest and support of all our citizens, not only through Government-sponsored programs but also on behalf of the research, education, and community services sustained by the American Heart Association—a national voluntary heart agency and partner of the National Heart Institute of the Public Health Service.

For these reasons, and because the Congress, by a joint resolution approved December 30, 1963 (77 Stat. 843), requested the President to issue annually a proclamation designating February as American Heart Month.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of February 1966 as American Heart Month, and I invite the Governors of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to issue similar proclamations.

I urge everyone to enlist in this heart crusade and to support the vital work that will enable us to reach the goal of healthy hearts for all.

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 twenty-fifth day of January in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninetieth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

Dean Rusk

Secretary of State