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Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: PRESIDENT JOHNSON DECLARED TODAY (23 MAY, 1964) "WE WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD BRIDGES ACROSS THE GULF WHICH HAS DIVIDED US FROM EASTERN EUROPE" IN ORDER TO REALIZE THE MARSHALL PLAN'S VISION OF A EUROPE JOINED IN PEACE.

"THEY WILL BE BRIDGES OF INCREASED TRADE, OF IDEAS, OF VISITORS AND OF HUMANITARIAN AID", JOHNSON SAID IN AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE "CAPTAINS AND COMPANIONS" OF THE LATE WORLD WAR II CHIEF OF STAFF AND COLD WAR SECRETARY OF STATE, GEORGE C. MARSHALL.

JOHNSON DESCRIBED MARSHALL AS "AMONG THE NOBLEST AMERICANS OF THEM ALL. NOT ALL A GREAT SOLDIER, NOT ONLY A GREAT STATESMAN, HE WAS FIRST AND FOREMOST A GREAT MAN".

JOHNSON'S REMARKS CAME IN A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF GEORGE C. MARSHALL RESEARCH LIBRARY.

ASSEMBLED FOR THE CEREMONIES AT MARSHALL'S ALMA MATER, VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE, WERE JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, TOP OFFICIALS OF GOVERNMENT AND MORE THAN 50 GENERALS WHO SERVED UNDER MARSHALL DURING WORLD WAR II.

IT WAS A SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER TRUMAN THAT MARSHALL PROPOSED THE PLAN TO AID A WAR-BATTERED EUROPE TO GET BACK ON ITS FEET ECONOMICALLY.