(1) Lady Bird Johnson represents the finest qualities of American women, having demonstrated exceptional abilities in the fields of government, business, and social justice; (2) Lady Bird Johnson's life of service to the Nation covers a generation of change in the status of women; (3) the intelligence and devotion of Lady Bird Johnson to the concerns of the family, natural resources, and education have eased the transition of the roles of women and benefited the Nation; (4) Lady Bird Johnson, in her roles as wife of a United States Representative and Senator, First Lady of the United States, skilled businesswoman, and regent for the University of Texas, has served as an example of the bridge between the traditional role and the contemporary roles of women in the United States; and (5) Lady Bird Johnson has received national recognition with the presentation of many awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Golden Candlestick Award, the B'nai B'rith Humanitarian Award, the Business and Professional Women's Club Businesswomen's Award, the Ladies Home Journal Woman of the Year Award, the University of Texas Distinguished Alumni Award, the Department of the Interior Conservation Service Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

(1) Elie Wiesel is internationally esteemed for his accomplishments as novelist, teacher, philosopher, critic, historian, humanitarian, and distinguished citizen of the United States and the world; (2) the twenty-five published works of Elie Wiesel include novels, testimonies, short stories, and essays which fuse the richness of centuries-old religious traditions with the insights of modern philosophy; (3) the life and writings of Elie Wiesel have been the subject of at least eleven books and his work is taught in high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the United States; (4) Elie Wiesel in his role of "spiritual archivist of the Holocaust" encourages an understanding of the horrors of the past in order to offer humanity hope for a better and more secure future; (5) Elie Wiesel served with distinction as Chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust and as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; (6) Elie Wiesel has traveled, written, and worked for the cause of human rights in Biafra, Lebanon, Cambodia, the Soviet Union, and Central America; and (7) Elie Wiesel has received the International Literary Prize for Peace and the Prix Medicis, two of the most prestigious literary awards of Europe, and honorary degrees from twenty-five universities of the United States and Israel.

President Harry S. Truman

Thirty-Third President
1945-1953 Born: May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri Died: December 26, 1972 in Independence, Missouri


During his few weeks as Vice President, Harry S. Truman scarcely saw President Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became President. He told reporters, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He grew up in Independence, and for 12 years prospered as a Missouri farmer. He went to France during World War I as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, and opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. Active in the Democratic Party, Truman was elected a judge of the Jackson County Court (an administrative position) in 1922. He became a Senator in 1934. During World War II he headed the Senate war investigating committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving perhaps as much as 15 billion dollars. As President, Truman made some of the most crucial decisions in history. Soon after V-E Day, the war against Japan had reached its final stage. An urgent plea to Japan to surrender was rejected. Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender quickly followed. In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace. Thus far, he had followed his predecessor's policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, "symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right." It became known as the Fair Deal. Dangers and crises marked the foreign scene as Truman campaigned successfully in 1948. In foreign affairs he was already providing his most effective leadership. In 1947 as the Soviet Union pressured Turkey and, through guerrillas, threatened to take over Greece, he asked Congress to aid the two countries, enunciating the program that bears his name--


The Truman Doctrine.


The Marshall Plan, named for his Secretary of State, stimulated spectacular economic recovery in war-torn western Europe. When the Russians blockaded the western sectors of Berlin in 1948, Truman created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Russians backed down. Meanwhile, he was negotiating a military alliance to protect Western nations, the


North Atlantic Treaty Organization, established in 1949. In June 1950, when the Communist government of


North Korea attacked South Korea, Truman conferred promptly with his military advisers. There was, he wrote, "complete, almost unspoken acceptance on the part of everyone that whatever had to be done to meet this aggression had to be done. There was no suggestion from anyone that either the United Nations or the United States could back away from it." A long, discouraging struggle ensued as U.N. forces held a line above the old boundary of South Korea. Truman kept the war a limited one, rather than risk a major conflict with China and perhaps Russia. Deciding not to run again, he retired to Independence; at age 88, he died December 26, 1972, after a stubborn fight for life.

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For more information about President Truman, please visit



The Harry S. Truman Museum and Library

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