The Foreign Policies of Herbert Hoover 1929-1933

by William Starr Myers

THE FOREIGN POLICIES OF HERBERT HOOVER 1929 - 1933 By William Starr Myers CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS LTD - LONDON 1940 COPYRIGHT, 1940, BY CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS Printed In the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this look may be reproduced in any form without the permission of Charles Scribncrs Sons PREFACE IN THE YEAH 1935 Mr. Walter H. Newton and I wrote a book entitled The Hoover Administration a Docu mented, Narrative. After conference with Mr. Hoover, we decided to omit therefrom all discussion of foreign affairs. This omission is supplied in the present book. Mr. Hoover has placed at my disposal unreservedly the use of his private papers contained in the Hoover Library on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, also his own papers at his home in Palo Alto. This work is in large part based on these papers, and I have expressed my views with complete freedom. For this reason, these same views are my own, and neither he nor those others who have kindly assisted me by advice and information are in any way responsible for them. I have attempted to give a survey of the Hoover policies as seen from the White House, that is to say, as he personally formulated them, and strove to carry through his far-reaching plans for the advancement of the interests of the United States, and for the further ance of the cause of peace and human happiness through out the world. This book, therefore, is in no sense a complete account of the foreign policies of the Hoover Administration. The restrictions on the use of govern PREFACE mental material and other matters of present confidence make such a definitive account impossible for some years tocome. But I feel that the time has come to make plain just what the special Hoover policies were. They reflect a philosophy enunciated by him more than twenty years ago and reiterated since then with characteristic con sistency. This is not a biography of Mr. Hoover, but it should be stated that no man has ever occupied the Presidency with such a previous intimate acquaintance and experi ence with foreign peoples and their governments. Be fore the Great War, as a leading engineer and along with his American practice, he had directed great works in Russia, China, Japan, the British Empire, and other European countries. Such enterprises were of necessity in constant contact with the political, economic and social forces of those countries. After 1914, lie served as head of the Belgian Relief which was in itself a kind of Independent power, and in constant touch with gov ernment officials In Germany, England and France. When the United States entered the war Mr. Hoover became a member of President Wilsons War Council and as the head of the Allied Food Council he was again brought into close contact with International problems. For a year after the Armistice he was an executive head and at times Chairman of the Supreme Economic Coun cil representing all the Allied governments. That body was engaged under his direction in the reconstruction vi PREFACE of the economic life, transportation, commerce, reliefs credits, etc., of over twenty nations. Here, likewise, he was in daily touch with these governments. Never be fore has any single American been plunged so deeply into the life of European countries. As Secretary of Commerce from 1922 to 1928, Mr. Hoover was again in continued contact andconsultation in all our problems of foreign relations. He served on the Advisory Committee of the first Naval Reduction Conference, the War Debt Commissions, etc. Thus for over thirty years he had intimate understanding of foreign affairs. I desire now to express my deep thanks to Doctor Nathan van Patten, Director of the Libraries of Stan ford University, who showed me many and signal favors during my research among the papers In the Hoover Library on War, Revolution and Peace, and likewise to Miss Suda L...

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940