Proclamation 4066—United Nations Day, 1971

Each year on October 24, the people of America and the world join in the formal observance of a truly global occasion, one that transcends political, cultural, religious, and calendar differences in its promise for all mankind: the anniversary of the United Nations Charter. This fall, as the United Nations completes its twenty-sixth year of service to the world, United Nations Day is an occasion to look back with gratitude and a measure of pride, and to look ahead with determination and hope.

Reviewing the work of the United Nations since 1945, we can see a substantial record of accomplishment in the world body's major areas of endeavor—"to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war . . . and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom," as the Charter states them. The United States will continue in the future, as it has in the past, to support the efforts of the UN in these great tasks.

At the same time, this country and its fellow member countries of the UN must act together to meet the new problems this new decade thrusts upon us. Through the UN, we all share stewardship over the planet Earth: together we face the challenges of coordinating measures to heal and protect the world's fragile ecosystems; of ensuring that the resources of the sea are developed for the benefit of all mankind; of promoting international cooperation in the use of outer space. Through the UN, we all share responsibility for making the human community more humane: together we face the challenges of curbing such vicious international crimes as narcotics trafficking, air piracy, and terrorism against diplomats; of moderating explosive population growth; of protecting the human rights of prisoners of war and refugees.

The roots of American commitment to the United Nations go far deeper than the words of a charter signed at San Francisco or the glass and steel of a headquarters in New York—they spring from the hearts of the American people. With the world in urgent need of a dynamic, effective international organization, it is appropriate for us as a people and as individuals to renew our sense of tough- minded dedication to making the UN work. The President's Commission for the Observance of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the United Nations, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, recently submitted to me its recommendations for measures to increase the effectiveness of the United Nations and of American participation therein. I am giving this useful report close study, and I commend it to the attention of every concerned citizen. Only "we the peoples of the United Nations," who ordained the UN Charter and charged it with man's highest hopes, have the power to make it succeed.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Sunday, October 24, 1971, as United Nations Day. I urge the citizens of this Nation to observe that day with community programs which will express realistic understanding and support for the United Nations and its associated organizations.

I also call upon the appropriate officials to encourage citizens' groups and agencies of communication—press, radio, television, and motion pictures—to engage in appropriate observance of United Nations Day this year in cooperation with the United Nations Association of the United States of America and other interested organizations.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-sixth.

RICHARD NIXON