Presidents in Retirement: Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover left office in 1933, blamed for the Great Depression. He was so angry at his successor Franklin Roosevelt over the rhetoric in the election campaign that he wouldn't speak to FDR on the car ride over to the inauguration ceremony. He had tried to get Roosevelt to work with him during the transition period, but Roosevelt considered that it was still Hoover's problem and didn't want to be associated with Hoover's failed efforts.
Hoover left Washington in March 1933, bitter about his election loss and his continuing unpopularity. At the time he was the only living ex-President, and this would continue to be the case until Harry Truman left office in 1953. Hoover and his wife Lou went to New York City, where they stayed in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Later that spring, they returned home to California to their Stanford residence. Hoover enjoyed returning to the men's clubs that he had belonged to/ These included the Bohemian Club, the Pacific-Union Club, and the University Club in San Francisco. Hoover and his wife lived in Palo Alto until her death in 1944. After Lou Hoover died, he moved to New York and lived permanently at the Waldorf Astoria.
While living in California, Hoover liked to drive his car and take road trips, accompanied by his wife or a friend. In those days former Presidents did not get Secret Service protection. That wouldn't occur until the 1960s. He would visit Western mining camps or small towns where he often went unrecognized. He also lived to drive into the mountains, or deep into the woods, to go fishing in quiet areas. A year before his death, his own fishing days behind him, he published his book "Fishing For Fun—And To Wash Your Soul". It was the sixteenth and last of the books that he would write and publish.
Retirement didn't mean exile from politics for Hoover. He continued to closely follow national events after his retirement, and was a frequent and constant critic of Franklin Roosevelt. It wasn't just political, it was personal. Hoover felt that he had to respond to continued attacks on his character and presidency. In that vein, Hoover wrote more than two dozen books, including The Challenge to Liberty (1934), which harshly criticized the New Deal. Hoover expressed the concern that the country had surrendered its "freedom of mind and spirit" to the New Deal. He described the National Recovery Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Administration as fascist organizations. He said that the 1933 Banking Act was a "move to gigantic socialism."
Hoover was only 58 when he left office. He hadn't given up the idea of serving another term as president and having a rematch against Roosevelt. At the 1936 Republican National Convention, Hoover gave a speech attacking the New Deal. It was well received by the delegates. There was some hope of a Hoover candidacy, but delegates realized that they would never win with Hoover as their candidate, so they turned instead to Kansas Governor Alf Landon as their nominee. In the general election, Hoover campaigned for Landon's unsuccessful campaign with numerous well-publicized speeches attacking the New Deal and its accompanying liberalism. Hoover was eager to oppose Roosevelt at every turn. But some Republicans like Senator Arthur Vandenberg urged the still-unpopular ex-president to remain out of the fray during the debate over Roosevelt's proposed Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937.
At the 1940 Republican National Convention, Hoover once again hoped for the presidential nomination. He was dismayed when it went to the internationalist Wendell Willkie. A pacifist-minded Quaker, Hoover did not want the US to enter the second world war. Hoover was still popular in Europe, and he was honored in France and Belgium. During a 1938 trip to Europe, Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and stayed at Hermann Göring's hunting lodge. Hoover did voice dismay at the persecution of Jews in Germany, but despite this, he believed that Hitler did not present a threat outside of Germany. He said that he believed that Roosevelt posed the biggest threat to peace, as he believed that Roosevelt was discouraging France and Britain from reaching an "accommodation" with Germany.
After the September 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, Hoover continued to oppose United States intervention in World War II. He was critical of Roosevelt's "Lend-Lease" policy. Hoover became a vocal supporter of providing relief to countries in Nazi-occupied Europe. He was played a part in the formation of the Commission for Polish Relief and Finnish Relief Fund. In 1939, Roosevelt asked Hoover to the White House for advice on getting aid to Poland, but Hoover refused the offer. Hoover was not called upon to serve after the United States entered World War II due to his differences with Roosevelt and his continuing unpopularity.
Lou died of a heart attack in New York City on January 7, 1944. She predeceased her husband by 20 years. It appears that her husband dealt with his grief by throwing himself into his work. The couple had been very close and the college educated Mrs. Hoover had been a valuable partner and ally to her husband.
Before Pearl Harbor, Hoover continued to oppose US entry into the war. During a radio broadcast on June 29, 1941, one week after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hoover was critical of the notion of any alliance between the U.S. and the USSR. He said:
"If we go further and join the war and we win, then we have won for Stalin the grip of communism on Russia. Again I say, if we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to impose more communism on Europe and the world. At least we could not with such a bedfellow say to our sons that by making the supreme sacrifice, they are restoring freedom to the world. War alongside Stalin to impose freedom is more than a travesty. It is a tragedy."
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hoover did not criticize US war effort. He was anxious to help out in relief efforts, but would not get the opportunity to do so until after Roosevelt's death in April of 1945. Hoover became friends with President Harry S. Truman despite being members of different political parties. When Truman left office, Hoover joked that they were for many years the sole members of the "trade union" of former Presidents. Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 President Truman asked Hoover to tour Germany to come up with a plan for feeding those in the occupied nation. Hoover toured what was to become West Germany, using Hermann Göring's old train coach. He produced a number of reports critical of U.S. occupation policy. In one report he wrote: "There is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a 'pastoral state'. It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it."
On Hoover's initiative, a school meals program in the American and British occupation zones of Germany was started on April 14, 1947. The program served 3,500,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18. A total of 40,000 tons of American food was provided as part of what became known as "Hooverspeisung" (Hoover meals).
That same year Truman also appointed Hoover to a commission tasked with reorganizing the executive departments. This became known as the Hoover Commission. Led by Hoover, it commission recommended changes designed to strengthen the president's ability to manage the federal government. While Hoover had once been opposed to FDR's concentration of power, he now believed that a stronger presidency was required with the arrival of Atomic Age. In 1953, Hoover was appointed to a similar commission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Hoover continued to work nearly full-time both on writing. He published his memoirs in three volumes in 1951 and 1952, and he wrote a biography entitled "The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson", which became bestseller in 1958. It was the first time that a former President had ever written a biography about another one. He also was the titular head of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, which housed not only his own professional papers, but also those of a number of other former high ranking governmental and military servants. He also became involved in fund-raising efforts for the Boys Clubs (now the Boys & Girls Clubs of America).
In 1958, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, offering a $25,000 yearly pension to each former president. Hoover and Harry Truman were the only two living former presidents. Hoover didn't need the money, but Truman did. Hoover took the pension so to avoid embarrassing Truman for whose benefit the law was passed.
Hoover was the only living former Republican president between his last day in office in 1933 and Eisenhower's last day in office in 1961. Starting with the 1948 convention, Hoover was the guest of honor at a number of "farewell" ceremonies, with the unspoken assumption being that the aging former President might not be around at the next convention. In 1960, Hoover appeared at his final Republican National Convention. He joking to the delegates, saying, "Apparently, my last three good-byes didn't take." He was still alive at the time of the 1964 convention, but ill health prevented him from attending. His absence was acknowledged in presidential nominee Barry Goldwater's acceptance speech.
In 1962, Hoover had a malignant intestinal tumor removed. Ten months later he had severe gastrointestinal bleeding and seemed terminally ill and frail. But his mind was clear and he maintained a great deal of correspondence. Although the illness would get worse over time, he refused to be hospitalized. His health became worse and he would not live to see the result of the 1964 election. Hoover suffered massive internal bleeding and died, at the age of 90, in his New York City suite at 11:35 a.m. on October 20, 1964. His death came 31 years, 7 months, and 16 days after leaving office. At the time of his death, he had the longest retirement of any President. (That record has since been broken by Jimmy Carter).
Hoover left Washington in March 1933, bitter about his election loss and his continuing unpopularity. At the time he was the only living ex-President, and this would continue to be the case until Harry Truman left office in 1953. Hoover and his wife Lou went to New York City, where they stayed in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Later that spring, they returned home to California to their Stanford residence. Hoover enjoyed returning to the men's clubs that he had belonged to/ These included the Bohemian Club, the Pacific-Union Club, and the University Club in San Francisco. Hoover and his wife lived in Palo Alto until her death in 1944. After Lou Hoover died, he moved to New York and lived permanently at the Waldorf Astoria.
While living in California, Hoover liked to drive his car and take road trips, accompanied by his wife or a friend. In those days former Presidents did not get Secret Service protection. That wouldn't occur until the 1960s. He would visit Western mining camps or small towns where he often went unrecognized. He also lived to drive into the mountains, or deep into the woods, to go fishing in quiet areas. A year before his death, his own fishing days behind him, he published his book "Fishing For Fun—And To Wash Your Soul". It was the sixteenth and last of the books that he would write and publish.
Retirement didn't mean exile from politics for Hoover. He continued to closely follow national events after his retirement, and was a frequent and constant critic of Franklin Roosevelt. It wasn't just political, it was personal. Hoover felt that he had to respond to continued attacks on his character and presidency. In that vein, Hoover wrote more than two dozen books, including The Challenge to Liberty (1934), which harshly criticized the New Deal. Hoover expressed the concern that the country had surrendered its "freedom of mind and spirit" to the New Deal. He described the National Recovery Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Administration as fascist organizations. He said that the 1933 Banking Act was a "move to gigantic socialism."
Hoover was only 58 when he left office. He hadn't given up the idea of serving another term as president and having a rematch against Roosevelt. At the 1936 Republican National Convention, Hoover gave a speech attacking the New Deal. It was well received by the delegates. There was some hope of a Hoover candidacy, but delegates realized that they would never win with Hoover as their candidate, so they turned instead to Kansas Governor Alf Landon as their nominee. In the general election, Hoover campaigned for Landon's unsuccessful campaign with numerous well-publicized speeches attacking the New Deal and its accompanying liberalism. Hoover was eager to oppose Roosevelt at every turn. But some Republicans like Senator Arthur Vandenberg urged the still-unpopular ex-president to remain out of the fray during the debate over Roosevelt's proposed Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937.
At the 1940 Republican National Convention, Hoover once again hoped for the presidential nomination. He was dismayed when it went to the internationalist Wendell Willkie. A pacifist-minded Quaker, Hoover did not want the US to enter the second world war. Hoover was still popular in Europe, and he was honored in France and Belgium. During a 1938 trip to Europe, Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and stayed at Hermann Göring's hunting lodge. Hoover did voice dismay at the persecution of Jews in Germany, but despite this, he believed that Hitler did not present a threat outside of Germany. He said that he believed that Roosevelt posed the biggest threat to peace, as he believed that Roosevelt was discouraging France and Britain from reaching an "accommodation" with Germany.
After the September 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, Hoover continued to oppose United States intervention in World War II. He was critical of Roosevelt's "Lend-Lease" policy. Hoover became a vocal supporter of providing relief to countries in Nazi-occupied Europe. He was played a part in the formation of the Commission for Polish Relief and Finnish Relief Fund. In 1939, Roosevelt asked Hoover to the White House for advice on getting aid to Poland, but Hoover refused the offer. Hoover was not called upon to serve after the United States entered World War II due to his differences with Roosevelt and his continuing unpopularity.
Lou died of a heart attack in New York City on January 7, 1944. She predeceased her husband by 20 years. It appears that her husband dealt with his grief by throwing himself into his work. The couple had been very close and the college educated Mrs. Hoover had been a valuable partner and ally to her husband.
Before Pearl Harbor, Hoover continued to oppose US entry into the war. During a radio broadcast on June 29, 1941, one week after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hoover was critical of the notion of any alliance between the U.S. and the USSR. He said:
"If we go further and join the war and we win, then we have won for Stalin the grip of communism on Russia. Again I say, if we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to impose more communism on Europe and the world. At least we could not with such a bedfellow say to our sons that by making the supreme sacrifice, they are restoring freedom to the world. War alongside Stalin to impose freedom is more than a travesty. It is a tragedy."
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hoover did not criticize US war effort. He was anxious to help out in relief efforts, but would not get the opportunity to do so until after Roosevelt's death in April of 1945. Hoover became friends with President Harry S. Truman despite being members of different political parties. When Truman left office, Hoover joked that they were for many years the sole members of the "trade union" of former Presidents. Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 President Truman asked Hoover to tour Germany to come up with a plan for feeding those in the occupied nation. Hoover toured what was to become West Germany, using Hermann Göring's old train coach. He produced a number of reports critical of U.S. occupation policy. In one report he wrote: "There is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a 'pastoral state'. It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it."
On Hoover's initiative, a school meals program in the American and British occupation zones of Germany was started on April 14, 1947. The program served 3,500,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18. A total of 40,000 tons of American food was provided as part of what became known as "Hooverspeisung" (Hoover meals).
That same year Truman also appointed Hoover to a commission tasked with reorganizing the executive departments. This became known as the Hoover Commission. Led by Hoover, it commission recommended changes designed to strengthen the president's ability to manage the federal government. While Hoover had once been opposed to FDR's concentration of power, he now believed that a stronger presidency was required with the arrival of Atomic Age. In 1953, Hoover was appointed to a similar commission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Hoover continued to work nearly full-time both on writing. He published his memoirs in three volumes in 1951 and 1952, and he wrote a biography entitled "The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson", which became bestseller in 1958. It was the first time that a former President had ever written a biography about another one. He also was the titular head of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, which housed not only his own professional papers, but also those of a number of other former high ranking governmental and military servants. He also became involved in fund-raising efforts for the Boys Clubs (now the Boys & Girls Clubs of America).
In 1958, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, offering a $25,000 yearly pension to each former president. Hoover and Harry Truman were the only two living former presidents. Hoover didn't need the money, but Truman did. Hoover took the pension so to avoid embarrassing Truman for whose benefit the law was passed.
Hoover was the only living former Republican president between his last day in office in 1933 and Eisenhower's last day in office in 1961. Starting with the 1948 convention, Hoover was the guest of honor at a number of "farewell" ceremonies, with the unspoken assumption being that the aging former President might not be around at the next convention. In 1960, Hoover appeared at his final Republican National Convention. He joking to the delegates, saying, "Apparently, my last three good-byes didn't take." He was still alive at the time of the 1964 convention, but ill health prevented him from attending. His absence was acknowledged in presidential nominee Barry Goldwater's acceptance speech.
In 1962, Hoover had a malignant intestinal tumor removed. Ten months later he had severe gastrointestinal bleeding and seemed terminally ill and frail. But his mind was clear and he maintained a great deal of correspondence. Although the illness would get worse over time, he refused to be hospitalized. His health became worse and he would not live to see the result of the 1964 election. Hoover suffered massive internal bleeding and died, at the age of 90, in his New York City suite at 11:35 a.m. on October 20, 1964. His death came 31 years, 7 months, and 16 days after leaving office. At the time of his death, he had the longest retirement of any President. (That record has since been broken by Jimmy Carter).