Show The Great Presidents I SeventY Seventy five lve students of or American American American Am Am- history were recently asked to lo select the great Presidents Presidents Presidents dents of the United Stales States and the near great near great and the results might be surprising to lo many Americans Of course the identity of the I seventy five e students of American American Amer Amer- ican history could have a direct bearing on the outcome of the poll especially if they were all cons considered liberals or all of one philosophy generally speak speak- ing The seventy five however are arc said to lo have included a abroad abroad abroad broad selection fairly I In any event whether this is isI I right or 01 wrong the seventy five choose Lincoln Washington Franklin Roosevelt Wilson and Jefferson as the five greatest Presidents our country has had Interestingly of the six near near- greats one now living Pres ex ident was among them He was not Dw Dwight D. D Eisenhower but Harry S. S Truman Truman was given credit for saving Greece and Turkey from Communism with the Truman Doctrine for having ing restored Western Europe with the Marshall Plan for having having having hav hav- ing saved Berlin with wilh the Berlin Berhn airlift and for fOl having instituted Point Four NATO and military defense of South Korea Along with Truman who rank cd fourth in the he listing of the I six near great Presidents were Andrew Jackson Theodore Roosevelt James Polk John Adams and Grover Cleveland Yet Lincoln the first Republican Republican lican Bean was rated the greatest even though George Washington the founder of the country and the general who ho led our armies to lo victory in the Revolution had to be downgraded to second for Lincoln to take lake the number- number one spot Just after Washington and Lincoln came Franklin D. D Roosevelt The Time students of American Am Am- American history who took pal pail pact pailin t tn in n the poll obviously did not agree with wilh critics of Roosevelt that thai he was quite the villian many now make l him lum m out to lo toha ha have ve been The one characteristic trait all these Presidents seem to lo have possessed was a deep conviction conviction con- con and moral sense that the mass of or people must have a better belter life me and that the mass massof massof massof of people and their aspirations take precedence over Q entrenched entrench entrench- cd ed groups and interests and influential influential influential in in- elements clements in society |