Volume 1
Report to the President : a national program to conquer heart disease, cancer and stroke.
- United States. President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke
- Date:
- 1964-1965
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report to the President : a national program to conquer heart disease, cancer and stroke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Dear Mr. PRESIDENT: I have the honor to submit the report of the President’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke. The Commission was appointed by you in March 1964, to develop a realistic battle plan leading to the ultimate conquest of three diseases—heart disease, cancer and stroke—which now account for more than 70 percent of the deaths in this country. In your initial charge to us, you requested us to recommend practical steps to reduce the heavy losses exacted by these diseases through the development of new scientific knowledge and through the delivery to all of our people in every part of this great land of the precious, lifesaving medical know]- edge we now possess, but fail to bring to so many stricken American families. Grateful beyond measure of expression for this Presidential mandate, we plunged into our assigned task—confident that the toll of these three diseases could in fact be sharply reduced now and in the immediate future. During the intervening months, as we sought and received testimony from scores of leaders in medicine and public affairs, our conviction mounted that we could chart a truly national effort—calling upon the full resources of Federal, State and local govern- ments, the dedicated members of the health professions, and our great voluntary health organizations—leading to the increased control, and eventual elimination, of heart disease, cancer and stroke as leading causes of disability and death. This report embodies our recommendations for such a united effort by a free and vigorous people. Our stated goals are neither impractical nor visionary— they can be achieved if we so will it. They must be achieved if we are to check the heavy losses these three diseases inflict upon our economy—close to $40 billion each year in lost productivity and lost taxes due to premature disability and death. In the early decades of this Republic, our people tended to view disease as an irrevocable and irreversible visitation from an implacable Fate. Our remark- able progress against many diseases over the past half century—the life span of the average American has been lengthened by 23 years since 1900—is vivid proof of the reversibility of any disease process. The great engineer Charles F. Kettering once observed that no disease is incurable; it only seems so because of the ignorance of man. We submit this report. Mr. President, in the deep conviction that its immediate implementation will not only narrow appreciably the spectrum of our ignorance, but will contribute to the saving of thousands upon thousands of American lives now needlessly sacrificed to these three deadly enemies of mankind. Respectfully yours, Micwaet E. DeBaxey, M.D., Chairman.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3217410x_0001_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
