Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 84 Part 2.djvu/899

 84 STAT. ]

PROCLAMATION 3982-APR. 30, 1970

J229

I call upon officials of the Federal government, particularly in the Departments of Justice and Health, Education and Welfare, to join with educators and administrators of the academic community at large in establishing meaningful programs for the promotion of drug abuse prevention among young people. I urge State and local governments, as well as business, professional, and civil groups, to cooperate in such programs and to exercise their initiative in exploring new methods by which the potential dangers of drug experimentation can be communicated to the entire nation. The communications media can provide invaluable assistance in this regard, and I request their full support of this endeavor. I encourage members of the clergy, and all those whose activities interrelate with young people, to make a special effort during this week to discourage drug abuse, to end drug experimentation, and to eliminate illegal drug traffic. I N W I T N E S S WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-fourth.

(yZjU^K<:}^ Proclamation 3982 DAY OF PRAYER By the President of the United States of America

April 30, 1970

A Proclamation

One of the crudest tactics of the war in Vietnam is the Communists' refusal to identify all prisoners of war, to provide information about them and to permit their families to communicate with them regularly. This callous policy is in violation of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, to which North Vietnam acceded in 1957. And it is in contempt of established customs among civilized nations and of ordinary human decency. The government of the United States of America is making and will continue to make every effort to alleviate the anxietj^ of the families of these prisoners by working to change this situation. The Congress by a House Concurrent Resolution of April 28, 1970, has resolved that Friday, May 1, 1970, be commemorated as a day for an appeal for international justice for all the American prisoners of war and servicemen missing in action in Southeast Asia and has requested the President to designate Sunday, May 3, 1970, as a National Day of Prayer for humane treatment and the safe return of these brave Americans. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICHARD NIXON, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Sunday, May 3, 1970, as a National Day of Prayer for all American Prisoners of War and Servicemen Missing in Action in Southeast Asia. I call upon all of the people of the United States to offer prayers on behalf of these men, to instill courage and perseverance in their hearts and the hearts of their loved ones and compassion in the hearts of their captors.

Ante,

p. 2183,.

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