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Statement by the President Concerning U.S. Membership in UNESCO

July 30, 1946

I AM GRATIFIED that Congress has passed the Joint Resolution authorizing me to accept membership for the United States in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. I attach the greatest importance to this agency.

UNESCO will summon to service in the cause of peace the forces of education, science, learning and the creative arts, and the agencies of the film, the radio and the printed word through which knowledge and ideas are diffused among mankind.

The government of the United States will work with and through UNESCO to the end that the minds of all people may be freed from ignorance, prejudice, suspicion and fear, and that men may be educated for justice, liberty and peace. If peace is to endure, education must establish the moral unity of mankind.

NOTE: As enacted, the Joint Resolution (H.J. Res. 305) is Public Law 565, 79th Congress (60 Stat. 712).