The Public Record
Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. A member of the Democratic Party, he was born in Texas and began his political career as a U.S. Representative in 1937, later becoming a U.S. Senator in 1949. Johnson ascended to the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and his administration is noted for significant domestic policies, including the Great Society programs aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injustice. His legislative achievements included the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid.
Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week of November 19 through November 25, 1965, as National Farm-City Week, and call upon citizens throughout the Nation to participate…
Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week of November 19 through November 25, 1965, as National Farm-City Week.
Our goal is simple: to speed the miracles of medical research from the laboratory to the bedside.
In the event of an inability which would prevent the President from so communicating with the Vice President, the Vice President, after such consultation as seems to him appropriate under the circumstances, would decide upon the devolution…
In the event of inability the President would--if possible--so inform the Vice President, and the Vice President would serve as Acting President, exercising the powers and duties of the Office until the inability had ended.
The fairness of this standard is so self-evident that we may well wonder that it has not always been applied.
We can now believe that it will never again shadow the gate to the American Nation with the twin barriers of prejudice and privilege.
So it is in that spirit that I declare this afternoon to the people of Cuba that those who seek refuge here in America will find it.
The dedication of America to our traditions as an asylum for the oppressed is going to be upheld.
The Federal Government will work closely with these agencies in their tasks of charity and brotherhood.
This bill says simply that from this day forth those wishing to immigrate to America shall be admitted on the basis of their skills and their close relationship to those already here.
Our next concern is with those who are imprisoned for political reasons.
Our first concern will be with those Cubans who have been separated from their children and their parents and their husbands and their wives and that are now in this country.
The lesson of our times is sharp and clear in this movement of people from one land to another.
When the earliest settlers poured into a wild continent there was no one to ask them where they came from.
I have directed the Departments of State and Justice and Health, Education, and Welfare to immediately make all the necessary arrangements to permit those in Cuba who seek freedom to make an orderly entry into the United States of America.
I am asking the Department of State to seek through the Swiss Government immediately the agreement of the Cuban Government in a request to the President of the International Red Cross Committee.
Once again, it stamps the mark of failure on a regime when many of its citizens voluntarily choose to leave the land of their birth for a more hopeful home in America.
It corrects a cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American Nation.
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