YURI GAGARIN'S courageous and pioneering flight into space opened new horizons and set a brilliant example for the spacemen of our two countries. I extend the deep sympathy of the American people to his family and to relatives of Colonel Engineer Vladimir Seryogin.
Note: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and his copilot, Vladimir Seryogin, were killed on March 27 when their jet plane crashed northeast of Moscow during a routine training flight.
The statement was read to members of the press by George E. Christian, Special Assistant to the President, in his office at the White House at 12:32 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, 1968. It was not made public in the form of a White House press release. A similar message was sent to the Soviet Government.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Death of Yuri Gagarin. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238113