; Whereas the United States has always been the well-wisher and supporter of European nations demanding freedom and the right to choose their own futures; Whereas many of the people of these nations that emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the demise of the Soviet Empire have looked to the United States, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as exemplars and natural allies; and Whereas, as was done in the designation of Captive Nations Week beginning in 1953 and then declared by a Congressional resolution and signed into law ( Public Law 86–90 ) in 1959, it is fitting that the United States clearly manifest to such peoples, through an appropriate and official means, the historic fact that the people of the United States share with them their aspirations to choose their own future consistent with the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter: Now, therefore, be it