Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: How Argentine Babies Came to be Named Herbert
[Originally Posted December 11, 2010]
On December 11, 1928, President-elect Herbert Hoover was on a tour of South America. One of the countries he visited was Argentina. On that day, Argentine police discovered and prevented an attempt on Hoover's life.
While in Argentina, Argentine anarchists led by Severino Di Giovanni plotted to destroy the railroad car in which Hoover was traveling, but the bomber was arrested before he could place the explosives on the rails. Hoover never mentioned the incident, and his complimentary remarks on Argentina were well-received in both the host country and in the press.
The incident was reported in a Time Magazine article that I was able to find online here. Here is how an uncredited Time writer described the incident in an article published in the Monday, December 24, 1928 edition of the magazine:
"Down from the snowy Andes to Buenos Aires rumbled a five-car train full of fully-armed Argentine soldiers. Behind, in a longer train, came the President-Elect of the U.S. If he gave thought to the soldiers ahead or to the "radical" bomb-plotters who had necessitated their presence, he did not show it. He gazed with placid satisfaction out of his car window at the Argentine's horizon-filling wheat ranches and pampas, at her myriad herds of kine and mutton.
"President Hipolito Yrigoyen of Argentine, a taciturn Socialist who makes no unnecessary public gestures, made a point of meeting the Hoovers at the terminal, thus sharing any danger the visitors might be in, thus trying to efface the national embarrassment felt by Argentina over the plan of some of her naughty children had had to blow Goodwill to smithereens.
"In a house in a Buenos Aires side-street, two young men and two young women had been found with seven bombs, many firearms and a map of the railway by which the Hoover party approached. They were anarchists and proud of it. Police collared them and kept watch on all other known radicals in the city. Hundreds of guards were deployed throughout the station. Hundreds more policed 100,000 of the populace, massed in the station plaza."
According to the writer of the story, Hoover was very well received, to the point where the author wrote "There were headlines about it, as well as about the various newborn babies who were to be christened Herbert or "Hoover".
After the bomb threat was discovered, Argentine President Yrigoyen accompanied Hoover for the remainder of his visit as a personal guarantee of Hoover's safety until he left the country. A few years later, when the Great Depression hit, Yrigoyen himself survived an assassination attempt on Christmas eve of 1929.
Following is some silent video, courtesy of YouTube, of some newsreel film of Hoover's visit to Argentina that year.
On December 11, 1928, President-elect Herbert Hoover was on a tour of South America. One of the countries he visited was Argentina. On that day, Argentine police discovered and prevented an attempt on Hoover's life.
While in Argentina, Argentine anarchists led by Severino Di Giovanni plotted to destroy the railroad car in which Hoover was traveling, but the bomber was arrested before he could place the explosives on the rails. Hoover never mentioned the incident, and his complimentary remarks on Argentina were well-received in both the host country and in the press.
The incident was reported in a Time Magazine article that I was able to find online here. Here is how an uncredited Time writer described the incident in an article published in the Monday, December 24, 1928 edition of the magazine:
"Down from the snowy Andes to Buenos Aires rumbled a five-car train full of fully-armed Argentine soldiers. Behind, in a longer train, came the President-Elect of the U.S. If he gave thought to the soldiers ahead or to the "radical" bomb-plotters who had necessitated their presence, he did not show it. He gazed with placid satisfaction out of his car window at the Argentine's horizon-filling wheat ranches and pampas, at her myriad herds of kine and mutton.
"President Hipolito Yrigoyen of Argentine, a taciturn Socialist who makes no unnecessary public gestures, made a point of meeting the Hoovers at the terminal, thus sharing any danger the visitors might be in, thus trying to efface the national embarrassment felt by Argentina over the plan of some of her naughty children had had to blow Goodwill to smithereens.
"In a house in a Buenos Aires side-street, two young men and two young women had been found with seven bombs, many firearms and a map of the railway by which the Hoover party approached. They were anarchists and proud of it. Police collared them and kept watch on all other known radicals in the city. Hundreds of guards were deployed throughout the station. Hundreds more policed 100,000 of the populace, massed in the station plaza."
According to the writer of the story, Hoover was very well received, to the point where the author wrote "There were headlines about it, as well as about the various newborn babies who were to be christened Herbert or "Hoover".
After the bomb threat was discovered, Argentine President Yrigoyen accompanied Hoover for the remainder of his visit as a personal guarantee of Hoover's safety until he left the country. A few years later, when the Great Depression hit, Yrigoyen himself survived an assassination attempt on Christmas eve of 1929.
Following is some silent video, courtesy of YouTube, of some newsreel film of Hoover's visit to Argentina that year.