(3 of 3)
Russians were stunned — although they knew from the Yalta newsreels that Franklin Roosevelt had become a tired and aging man. They honored him as no foreigner had been honored before — with black-bordered flags above the Kremlin, with memorial broadcasts and exhibits. Varvara Kruichkov, the war-widowed chambermaid who had dusted the President's apartment at Yalta, remembered his friendly "Spasibo — Thank you," and paid the tribute of all the proletariat: "He was a great man." In Moscow's streets people said to Americans: "Kak Zhalko! —What a pity!" And they asked: "Who is this Truman?"
Thus the story ran around the earth. Palestinians prayed each in his separate fashion, in church, synagogue and mosque," for the man who had gone. Indians saw "a bleak sad future" — they voiced their fore boding to passing G.I.s: "Sahib very bad news. Your President is dead ... a hard working man for war, a friend of poor. . . ."
Chinese clustered swiftly as the wet and shiny newspapers were pasted on Chung king's walls. Solemnly they spelled out the black news. Teachers told their pupils, and some cried openly over Lo Tsung-t'ung (President Roosevelt), the man who symbolized America's good will and her good help. A puzzled ricksha man asked: "But who killed him? Who killed him?" A peasant sadly shook his head: "Szu-te t'ai tsao liao!—It was too soon that he died." One Chinese driver turned to an American on an Army jeep, mustered all the English he possessed and said: "I am sorry for you."