Statement on the Death of Harry S Truman.

HARRY S TRUMAN will be remembered as one of the most courageous Presidents in our history, who led the Nation and the world through a critical period with exceptional vision and determination.

Our hopes today for a generation of peace rest in large measure on the firm foundations that he laid.

Recognizing the new threat to peace that had emerged from the ashes of war, he stood boldly against it with his extension of aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947--and the "Truman Doctrine" thus established was crucial to the defense of liberty in Europe and the world. In launching the Marshall Plan, he began the most farsighted and most generous act of international rebuilding ever undertaken. With his characteristically decisive action in Korea, he made possible the defense of peace and freedom in Asia.

He was a fighter who was at his best when the going was toughest. Like all political leaders, he had his friends and his opponents. But friends and opponents alike were unanimous in respecting him for his enormous courage, and for the spirit that saw him through whatever the odds. Whether in a political campaign or making the great decisions in foreign policy, they recognized and admired him--in a description he himself might have appreciated the most--as a man of "guts."

Embroiled in controversy during his Presidency, his stature in the eyes of history has risen steadily ever since. He did what had to be done, when it had to be done, and because he did the world today is a better and safer place--and generations to come will be in his debt.

It is with affection and respect that a grateful Nation now says farewell to "the man from Independence"--to its thirty-third President, Harry S Truman.