31st President of the Unites States: Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) Political Party: Republican Herbert Hoover was born in Iowa in 1874, but was raised in Oregon. He graduated from Stanford University, and quickly entered into a much storied early life in foreign affairs. Accompanied by his wife, he worked for a private corporation on assignment in China as an accomplished engineer. They soon were caught up in the Boxer Rebellion, where their settlement was held under siege for nearly a month. His wife worked in the hospitals, and Hoover directed in the construction of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese children from a skirmish crossfire. While in London on his 40th birthday in 1914, Germany declared war of Great Britain, and the American Embassy asked for his help in getting stranded American tourists home, where he succeeded in repatriating 120,000 people. After the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover the head of the Food Administration. He succeeded in cutting food consumption at home for the war effort abroad. After the war, Hoover was the head of the American Relief Administration that extended aid to famine stricken Soviet Russia. Despite facing criticism for helping Soviet citizens and the communist cause, he transcended geopolitical trappings by boldly proclaiming, “Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!” His foreign affairs experience soon catapulted Hoover to new political heights. He served as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. He later won the Republican presidential nomination in 1928 and subsequently the election. His administration held high economic hopes and vowed to triumph over poverty, but the stock market crashed in 1929, and the nation spiraled into depression. He expanded public works projects, cut taxes, ushered in banking reforms, and extended aid to farmers, but the no avail. America mired deeper into economic calamity, and the depression worsened. His humanitarian experiences in early life bolstered his commitment to help those in dire straits caused by the Great Depression. Nevertheless, his opponents in Congress unfairly painted him as unsympathetic to the growing number of impoverished Americans. He became the scapegoat for the depression, and was badly defeated by Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. It was not to be the end of Hoover’s public service, however. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower appointed him to various commissions and committees well into the late 1950’s. He died in 1964 at the age of 90.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 00:15:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015