"If you count the administrations of Grover Cleveland twice because another President held office between Cleveland's first and second term," said Truman, "you might try to justify the designation of me as thirty-third President. But then why don't you number all the second terms of other Presidents and the third and fourth terms of President Roosevelt, and where will you be? I am the thirty-second President."

Despite this argument, the official proclamation, dated April 13, 1945, issued by President Truman on the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to Mr. Roosevelt as the thirty-second president.

Reference: MR. PRESIDENT
By William Hillman, quoted in GOOD OLD HARRY,
compiled by George E. Caldwell, New York:
Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1966