August 10, 1965

The President
The White House
Washington » D. Cw

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday on our way out to NIH in the helicopter,
you asked those accompanying you for recommendations of
the individual to replace Dr. Luther Terry as Surgeon General
of the United States Publieg Health Service, whose resignation
you were going to announce in the course of your remarks at
the National Institutes of Health, My hesitancy in not im-
mediately naming an individual in response to your request
was by no means due to the fact that I had no firm conviction
as to whom this individual should be, but rather was a result
of uncertainty as to the inclination of the individual I had
in mind in respect to such a position. Howevér, in the con-
text of your stirring remarks concerning your hopes and desires
for new and bold objectives for advancing the health and well
being of the people of this Nation and the world, and coupled
with your specification of the dimenskons of imagination,
vision and force of the individual to lead the Public Health
Service, I am convinced that the man that I have in mind is
the only person supremely qualified to undertake this great
and noble task and that he must be persuaded to do so,

You well know the depth of my interest and the extent
of my efforts to advance the health of this Nation through
the programs of the Public Health Service, and particularly
those of the National Institutes of Health. In the 19 years
that I have served as a member and then as chairman of the
Subcommittee on Labor-HEW Appropriations, I have seen and
listened to all Surgeons General of the Public Health Service
since Surgeon General Parran, and all the senior officers and
program directors of the Public Health Service, In the course
of receiving testimony from public witnesses I have had an
The President -2- August 10, 1965

unusual opportunity to meet and gain the measure of the leading
physicians, medical investigators, and scientists in the country.
Throughout these years of effort the one individual who has re-
flected towering capability, commanding force and magnificent
breadth of vision beyond all others is Dr. James A, Shannon,

the Director of the National Institutes of Health.

I believe Dr. Shannon possesses the imagination, the
sense of the future, the feel for advancing the quality of
life that must imbue a Surgeon General who is to lead the
vanguard of this Nation's health effort. He has demonstrated
extraordinary administrative skill, capability and courage in
the way he has employed to the fullest the resources, framework
and capability of Federal organization and personnel in build-
ing a great scientific institution,

He commands the respect of the Legislative Branch of
Government by virtue of his searching views, his candor and
the competence with which he has initiated and administered
new programs and the pradence with which he has expended
large sums of Federal funds.

In addition to his stature as an outstanding public
servant, Dr. Shannon has, in the course of the discharge of
these responsibilities, continued to enhance a scientific
reputation that was already substantial at the beginning of
his Federal career, He commands the full respect of the
entire scientific community, not only in the medical sciences
but across the full range of national scientific endeavor.

A crowning accolad> in this recognition was his receet ac-
ceptance into membership in the National Academy of Sciences,
one of the very few Federal scientists so honored.

Dr. Shannon's stature, reputation and achievemenés
are by no means confined to the United States. He is known
throughout the world and his advice and counsel in matters
relating to health, to the pursuit of the medical sciences,
to the international organization of science, has been sought
by officials in many other nations and international organiza-
tions concerned with health and science affairs. Of great
importance to all of us who well know the burdens and frustra-
tions of public action, he is an individual who has brought
inspiring leadership to all the people, professional and lay,
who have worked with him and for him in the prosecttion of
The President -3- August 10, 1965

the great programs of the National Institutes of Health. He
has managed in the midst of the most adverse circumstances

to maintain a scientific organization whose stature, achieve-
ments and excellence make it a jewel amongst Federal research
establishments. You had the privilege yesterday of seeing
some brief glimpses of the great work of that extraordinary
institution,

Surely I have conveyed to you the strong feeling I
have of the great qualities and capabilities of Dr. James
Shannon and the enormous potential that he will bring to the
position of Surgeon General of the United States Public Health
Service. Dr. Shannon, without question in my mind, is the
single mm in this Nation capable of achieving the inspiring
goals that you are setting for the great society to which this
nation aspires, I commend to your consideration for the ap-
pointment to the position of Surgeon General cf the United
States Public Health Service Dr. James A. Shannon, Director
of the National Institutes of Health, and urge, in the interests
of our common commitment: to the health and well being of the
peopte of this Nation, your favorable consideration of this
recommendation,

With warmest personal regards,

Sincerely,

John E, Fogarty
Member of Congress