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Mcdal of Freedom Award to Secretary McNamara Wednesday, February 28, 1968 1:00pm. Words: 521 /Sparks REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT Thomas Jefferson said: "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property. 11 The man we honor today has lived that philosophy for more than seven years. The General Services Administration does not list him among our official assets. But he may be the most valuable single piece of "public property" on earth. I will not say that Bob McNamara has accomplished the impossible. We want him to understand how we feel about him -- and that word is not in his dictionary. But we all know that he has done what many believed to be the impossible -- until we saw him do it. Those of us who served in Government during the Second World War came out of that conflict proud of our Armed Forces -- but deeply concerned for their future. President Truman said: "One of the strongest convictions which I brought to the office of the President was that the antiquated defense setup of the United States had to be reorganized quickly as a step toward insuring our future safety and preserving world peace. From the beginning of my administration I began to push hard for unification of the military establishment into a single department. 11