Proclamation 3879—Recognizing the Significant Part Which Harry S. Truman Played in the Creation of the United Nations

By Proclamation No. 3878, I proclaimed October 24, 1968, as United Nations Day, and urged the citizens of this Nation to observe that day by appropriate community programs.

It is especially fitting that, on United Nations Day, Americans should recall the significant part which President Harry S. Truman played in the creation of the United Nations, and the continued support which he gave to that Organization during his term of office.

Some of Harry S. Truman's first decisions when he became President on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt concerned the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. From the day the Conference met on April 25, 1945, to draft the United Nations Charter, until it concluded two months later, President Truman gave close direction to the work of our delegation and climaxed the proceedings with an historic address at the closing session of the Conference.

President Truman knew that an effective world organization was needed to prevent a repetition of the devastation wrought by two World Wars. Under his direction, the United States proposed that the development of nuclear energy take place under United Nations control. Through the Point Four Program and in other ways, he projected the United Nations into the field of economic and social development. His concern for human rights led him to appoint Eleanor Roosevelt as the United States spokesman on human rights. Roosevelt helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose 20th anniversary we celebrate this year.

President Truman never flinched in the exercise of United States responsibility in and through the United Nations. Had he not resolutely supported United Nations opposition to the attack on the Republic of Korea in 1950, other aggressive adventures would have been encouraged, and the United Nations would be a far less effective body. He was alert to every possibility for using the United Nations on behalf of peace and justice—whether in Iran, Greece, the Middle East, Kashmir, or elsewhere.

The United States and the world owe much to President Truman's interest in the United Nations. It is right that the Congress should have, by a joint resolution approved October 11th authorized and requested that I issue a proclamation recognizing this fact on October 24--United Nations Day. It is my great pleasure to do so.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby urge the citizens of this Nation in their observances of United Nations Day 1968 to give special recognition to the significant part which Harry S. Truman played in the creation of the United Nations and to recall those qualities of character, responsibility and leadership which caused him to support the United Nations in its efforts to keep the peace, and to promote the rule of law and the prevalence of social justice among all men.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-third.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON