Statement by the President Upon Releasing General Clay Following the Agreement to Lift the Berlin Blockade.

FOUR YEARS AGO on March 29, 1945, President Roosevelt announced the selection of Gen. Lucius D. Clay for service in Military Government in Germany. Historically the Army has had a great tradition of constructive achievement in the government of occupied areas, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. But nothing that Americans had hitherto been called on to deal with approached the grim prospect presented by the moral and physical collapse of Germany and the resulting unexampled chaos.

General Clay was selected for this task on his record of tireless effort, his firmness and his fairness, his quality as a soldier, and finally his understanding of and devotion to the American spirit of freedom.

On May 15, 1949, I am acceding to his repeated request to be released from this task. Several times before it had been thought that his request could be granted, but in recurring emergencies I felt that his character and abilities were essential to the task in Germany to which we were committed. He could not be spared.

The work of moral and economic reconstruction among the Germans in the Western Zone has proceeded to a point where they are about to obtain a greatly enlarged measure of political and economic responsibility. General Clay has now completed a prodigious task of administration.

As a soldier he has raised the morale and efficiency of our troops in Germany to levels in which he and the country can take justifiable pride.

His name will always be associated with one of the toughest tasks and accomplishments of American history. He deserves and will receive the thanks of the American people.

General Huebner and General Hays, General Clay's military and military government deputies, will carry on his work pending the appointment of a civilian High Commissioner.