Proclamation 4065—Captive Nations Week, 1971

From its beginnings as a nation, the United States has maintained a commitment to the principles of national independence and human liberty. In keeping with this tradition, it remains an essential purpose of our people to encourage the constructive changes which lead to the growth of human freedom. We understand and sympathize with the efforts of oppressed peoples everywhere to realize this inalienable right.

By a joint resolution approved on July 17, 1959, the Eighty-Sixth Congress authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation each year designating the third week in July as Captive Nations Week.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning July 18, 1971 as Captive Nations Week. I invite the people of the United States of America to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities, and I urge them to give renewed devotion to the just aspirations of all peoples for national independence and human liberty.

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

RICHARD NIXON