Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 97.djvu/1624

 97 STAT. 1592 PROCLAMATION 5068—JUNE 13, 1983 rights." This reaffirmed an eternal truth that Thomas Jefferson in 1776 wrote into our own Declaration of Independence. Another great thinker, Edmund Burke, observed simply that "the cause of Freedom is the cause of God." Some twenty-five centuries before, the prophet Isaiah admonished the world "To bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap- tives." Free people, if they are to remain free, must defend the liberty of others. As the custodians of a democratic tradition firmly established on this continent more than two centuries ago, Americans are deeply committed to the goal of representative government everywhere. Each year, the United States reaffirms its commitment to the cause of liber- ty during Captive Nations Week, by reminding all those who are forced to live under the domination of foreign military power and alien ideology that the United States supports their aspirations for freedom, independence and national self-determination. The Congress, by a joint resolution approved July 17, 1959 (73 Stat. 212), has authorized and requested the President to proclaim the third week in July as Captive Nations Week. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning July 17, 1983, as Cap- tive Nations Week. I invite the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to reaffirm their dedi- cation to the ideals of freedom, which unite us and inspire others. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 6th. day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and sev- enth. RONALD REAGAN Proclamation 5068 of June 13, 1983 Baltic Freedom Day, 1983 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation In 1940, Soviet armies invaded and occupied the independent countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The peaceful. Western-oriented Baltic na- tions were crushed by the force of arms of their hostile neighbor. Under the cynical arrangements of the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, the Soviet Union forcibly incorporated the three Baltic Republics into its empire. Following the Soviet takeover, tens of thousands of the Baltic peoples were subject to imprisonment, deportation, persecution, and execution. Their reli- gious, cultural, and historical heritage has been denigrated. The foreign po- litical system which now controls their homelands has attempted to force these unwilling people to accept an alien life of totalitarian domination. But it has failed. Today, the Baltic peoples continue to struggle to attain the freedoms we enjoy. These men and women still suffer harsh imprisonment, banishment, and persecution for their beliefs. Brave Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estoni-

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