Editing Herbert Hoover (section)

==Post-presidency (1933–1964)==
===Roosevelt administration===
====Opposition to the New Deal====
{{Further|Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, first and second terms}}
[[File:FDR Inauguration 1933.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.05|Hoover with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], March 4, 1933]]
Hoover departed from Washington in March 1933, bitter at his election loss and continuing unpopularity.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=147–149}} As Coolidge, Harding, Wilson, and Taft had all died during the 1920s or early 1930s and Roosevelt died in office, Hoover was the sole living former president from 1933 to 1953. He and his wife lived in Palo Alto until her death in 1944, at which point Hoover began to live permanently at the [[Waldorf Astoria New York|Waldorf Astoria hotel]] in New York City.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=155–156}} During the 1930s, Hoover increasingly self-identified as a [[Conservatism|conservative]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=555–557}} He closely followed national events after leaving public office, becoming a constant critic of Franklin Roosevelt. In response to continued attacks on his character and presidency, Hoover wrote more than two dozen books, including ''The Challenge to Liberty'' (1934), which harshly criticized Roosevelt's [[New Deal]]. Hoover described the New Deal's [[National Recovery Administration]] and [[Agricultural Adjustment Act|Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] as "fascistic", and he called the [[1933 Banking Act]] a "move to gigantic socialism".{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=147–151}}

Only 58 when he left office, Hoover held out hope for another term as president throughout the 1930s. At the [[1936 Republican National Convention]], Hoover's speech attacking the New Deal was well received, but the nomination went to Kansas governor [[Alf Landon]].{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=151–153}} In [[1936 United States presidential election|the general election]], Hoover delivered numerous well-publicized speeches on behalf of Landon, but Landon was defeated by Roosevelt.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 27550722|title = The Rhetoric of the Post-Presidency: Herbert Hoover's Campaign against the New Deal, 1934–1936|journal = Presidential Studies Quarterly|volume = 21|issue = 2|pages = 333–350|last1 = Short|first1 = Brant|year = 1991}}</ref> Though Hoover was eager to oppose Roosevelt at every turn, Senator [[Arthur Vandenberg]] and other Republicans urged the still-unpopular Hoover to remain out of the fray during the debate over Roosevelt's proposed [[Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937|Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937]]. At the [[1940 Republican National Convention]], he again hoped for the presidential nomination, but it went to the internationalist [[Wendell Willkie]], who lost to Roosevelt in the general election.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=147–154}} Hoover was the last president to seek public office after leaving office until 2022 when [[Donald Trump]] announced [[Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign|his successful bid]] for president in the [[2024 United States presidential election|2024 presidential election]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/15/why-they-ran-again-00066579 |title=4 Ex-Presidents Who Ran Again — And What They Mean for Trump |work=[[Politico]] |access-date=June 8, 2023 |last=Zeitz |first=Joshua |date=November 15, 2022}}</ref>

====World War II====
{{Further|Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, third and fourth terms}}

During a 1938 trip to Europe, Hoover met with [[Adolf Hitler]] and stayed at [[Hermann Göring]]'s hunting lodge.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=558–559}} He expressed dismay at the persecution of Jews in Germany and believed that Hitler was mad, but did not present a threat to the U.S. Instead, Hoover believed that Roosevelt posed the biggest threat to peace, holding that Roosevelt's policies provoked Japan and discouraged France and the United Kingdom from reaching an "accommodation" with Germany.<ref name=wsj10282017>{{cite news|first=Edward|last=Kosner|title=A Wonder Boy on the Wrong Side of History|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|location=New York City|date=October 28, 2017}}</ref> After the September 1939 [[invasion of Poland]] by Germany, Hoover opposed U.S. involvement in [[World War II]], including the [[Lend-Lease]] policy.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=152–154}} He was active in the isolationist [[America First Committee]].<ref>Katznelson, Ira (2013). ''Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of our Time. New York'', NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation. {{ISBN|978-0-87140-450-3}}. {{OCLC|783163618}}.</ref> He rejected Roosevelt's offers to help coordinate relief in Europe,{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=565}} but, with the help of old friends from the CRB, helped establish the [[Commission for Polish Relief]].{{sfn|Jeansonne 2016|pp=328–329}} After the beginning of the [[German occupation of Belgium during World War II|occupation of Belgium]] in 1940, Hoover provided aid for Belgian civilians, though this aid was described as unnecessary by German broadcasts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cornellcollege.edu/history/courses/stewart/his260-3-2006/01%20one/befr.htm|title=The Great Humanitarian: Herbert Hoover's Food Relief Efforts|publisher=Cornell College|access-date=February 28, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/the-few/|last=Churchill|first=Winston|title='The Few' Speech|date=August 20, 1940|publisher=International Churchill Society|access-date=February 28, 2020}}</ref>

In December 1939, sympathetic Americans led by Hoover formed the [[Finnish Relief Fund]] to donate money to aid Finnish civilians and refugees after the [[Soviet Union]] had started the [[Winter War]] by attacking Finland, which had outraged Americans.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763540,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014061233/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763540,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=October 14, 2010 | magazine=Time | title=FOREIGN TRADE: Amtorg's Spree | date=February 19, 1940}}</ref> By the end of January, it had already sent more than two million dollars to the Finns.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849150,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014065449/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849150,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=October 14, 2010 | magazine=Time | title=THE CONGRESS: Sounding Trumpets | date=January 29, 1940}}</ref>

During a radio broadcast on June 29, 1941, one week after the [[Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union]], Hoover disparaged any "tacit alliance" between the U.S. and the USSR, stating, "if we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to impose more communism on Europe and the world... War alongside Stalin to impose freedom is more than a travesty. It is a tragedy."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Edgar Eugene|last=Robinson|chapter=Hoover, Herbert Clark|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|volume=11|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]]|location=Chicago, Illinois|date=1973|pages=676–77}}</ref> Much to his frustration, Hoover was not called upon to serve after the [[Military history of the United States during World War II|United States entered World War II]] due to his differences with Roosevelt and his continuing unpopularity.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=155–156}} He did not pursue the presidential nomination at the [[1944 Republican National Convention]], and, at the request of Republican nominee [[Thomas E. Dewey]], refrained from campaigning during the general election.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=572}} In 1945, Hoover advised President [[Harry S. Truman]] to drop the United States' demand for the [[unconditional surrender]] of Japan because of the high projected casualties of the [[Operation Downfall|planned invasion of Japan]], although Hoover was unaware of the [[Manhattan Project]] and the [[Nuclear weapons of the United States|atomic bomb]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cohen |first=Jared |title=Accidental presidents : eight men who changed America|date=April 9, 2019 |publisher= Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-1-5011-0982-9|edition=First hardcover |location=New York|pages=313|oclc=1039375326}}</ref>

In 1943, Hoover expressed his support for [[Zionism]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Herbert Hoover's Plan for Palestine | url=https://cooperative-individualism.org/medoff-rafael_herbert-hoover's-plan-for-palestine-1990-summer.pdf | access-date=December 29, 2024}}</ref>

===Post-World War II===
{{Further|Presidency of Harry S. Truman|Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower}}
[[File:Hoover men Allan Herbert Sr Andrew 1950.jpg|thumb|Hoover with his son [[Allan Hoover|Allan]] (left) and his grandson Andrew (above), 1950]]

Following World War II, Hoover befriended President Truman despite their ideological differences.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=157–158}} Because of Hoover's experience with Germany at the end of World War I, in 1946 Truman selected the former president to tour [[Allied-occupied Germany]] and [[Rome]], Italy to ascertain the food needs of the occupied nations. After touring Germany, Hoover produced [[The President's Economic Mission to Germany and Austria|a number of reports]] critical of U.S. occupation policy.<ref>{{cite book | first = Michael R. | last = Beschloss | title = The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941–1945 | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743244541 | url-access = registration | publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|location=New York City|date = 2002 |isbn=978-0-7432-4454-1|page = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743244541/page/277 277]}}</ref> He stated in one report that "there is the illusion that the New Germany left after the [[Historical Eastern Germany#Potsdam Conference|annexations]] can be reduced to a '[[Morgenthau Plan|pastoral state]].' It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it."<ref>{{cite web|author=UN Chronicle |url=https://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2008/webarticles/080103_marshallplan.html |title=The Marshall Plan at 60: The General's Successful War on Poverty |publisher=The United Nations |date=March 18, 1947 |access-date=June 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414103548/http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2008/webarticles/080103_marshallplan.html |archive-date=April 14, 2008 }}</ref> On Hoover's initiative, a school meals program in the [[Bizone|American and British occupation zones of Germany]] was begun on April 14, 1947; the program served 3,500,000 children.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shephard |first=Roy J. |author-link=Roy J. Shephard |year=2014 |title=An Illustrated History of Health and Fitness, from Pre-History to our Post-Modern World |publisher=[[Axel Springer SE]]|location=New York City|page=782 }}</ref>

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right
 | audio1 = [https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/pressclub/hoover.html National Press Club Luncheon Speakers], Herbert Hoover, March 10, 1954, 37:23, Hoover speaks starting at 7:25 about the second reorganization commission, [[Library of Congress]]<ref name="loc">{{cite web | title =National Press Club Luncheon Speakers, Herbert Hoover, March 10, 1954 | publisher =[[Library of Congress]] | url =https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/pressclub/hoover.html | access-date =October 20, 2016 }}</ref> }}

Even more important, in 1947 Truman appointed Hoover to lead the [[Hoover Commission|Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government]] a new high level study. Truman accepted some of the recommendations of the "Hoover Commission" for eliminating waste, fraud, and inefficiency, consolidating agencies, and strengthening White House control of policy.<ref>Richard Norton Smith, ''An Uncommon Man,'' (1984) pp 371–380.</ref><ref>Christopher D. McKenna, "Agents of adhocracy: management consultants and the reorganization of the executive branch, 1947–1949." ''Business and Economic History'' (1996): 101–111.</ref> Though Hoover had opposed Roosevelt's concentration of power in the 1930s, he believed that a stronger presidency was required with the advent of the [[Atomic Age]].{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=158–159}} During the [[1948 United States presidential election|1948 presidential election]], Hoover supported Republican nominee [[Thomas E. Dewey]]'s unsuccessful campaign against Truman, but he remained on good terms with Truman.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=587–588}} Hoover favored the United Nations in principle, but he opposed granting membership to the [[Soviet Union]] and other [[Communist state]]s. He viewed the Soviet Union to be as morally repugnant as Nazi Germany and supported the efforts of [[Richard Nixon]] and others to expose Communists in the United States.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=592–594}}
[[File:President John F. Kennedy and former President Herbert Hoover.jpg|thumb|Hoover with President [[John F. Kennedy]] in 1961]]
In 1949, Dewey, as governor of New York, offered Hoover the Senate seat vacated by [[Robert F. Wagner]]. It was a matter of being senator for only two months and he declined.<ref>Herbert Hoover, ''The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath'', edited by George H. Nash,  (Hoover Institution Press, 2013) p 13.</ref>
[[File:Hoover Truman Eisenhower.jpg|thumb|left|Hoover with President [[Harry S. Truman]] and General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] at [[Princeton University]]]]
Hoover backed conservative leader [[Robert A. Taft]] at the [[1952 Republican National Convention]], but the party's presidential nomination instead went to [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], who went on to win the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 election]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=595}} Though Eisenhower appointed Hoover to another presidential commission, Hoover disliked Eisenhower, faulting the latter's failure to roll back the New Deal.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=158–159}} Hoover's public work helped to rehabilitate his reputation, as did his use of self-deprecating humor; he occasionally remarked that "I am the only person of distinction who's ever had a depression named after him."{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=592}} In 1958, Congress passed the [[Former Presidents Act]], offering a $25,000 yearly pension ({{Inflation|US|25000|1958|fmt=eq}}) to each former president.<ref name="Smith 2008">{{cite web |title=Former Presidents: Federal Pension and Retirement Benefits |date=March 18, 2008 |publisher=[[U.S. Senate]] |work=[[Congressional Research Service]] |url=https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/98-249.pdf |access-date=November 18, 2008 |author-link=<!-- Stephanie Smith, but not singer or actress --> |first=Stephanie |last=Smith }}</ref> Hoover took the pension even though he did not need the money, possibly to avoid embarrassing Truman, whose allegedly precarious financial status played a role in the law's enactment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Joseph William |author-link=Joseph William Martin Jr. |year=1960 |title=My First Fifty Years in Politics as Told to Robert J. Donovan |publisher=McGraw-Hill |page=249 }}</ref> In the early 1960s, President [[John F. Kennedy]] offered Hoover various positions; Hoover declined the offers but defended the Kennedy administration after the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] and was personally distraught by [[assassination of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy's assassination]] in 1963.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=601}}

Hoover wrote several books during his retirement, including ''The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson'', in which he strongly defended Wilson's actions at the Paris Peace Conference.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=571, 604–605}} In 1944, he began working on ''Freedom Betrayed'', which he often referred to as his "[[magnum opus]]". In ''Freedom Betrayed'', Hoover strongly critiques [[Foreign policy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration|Roosevelt's foreign policy]], especially Roosevelt's decision to recognize the Soviet Union in order to provide aid to that country during World War II.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|p=606}} The book was published in 2012 after being edited by historian [[George H. Nash]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Yerxa|first=Donald A|title=Freedom Betrayed: An interview with George H. Nash about Herbert Hoover's Magnum Opus|journal=Historically Speaking|date=September 2012|volume=XIII| issue = 4}}</ref>

===Death===
{{anchor|Death}}
[[File:Herbert Hoover Presidential Library 009.jpg|thumb|right|The gravesite of Herbert and [[Lou Henry Hoover]]]]
Hoover faced three major illnesses during the last two years of his life, including an August 1962 operation in which a growth on his [[large intestine]] was removed.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=606–607}}<ref name=Hoover90NYT>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/10/archives/hoover-marks-90th-year-today-predicts-new-gains-for-nation-because.html| title=Hoover Marks 90th Year Today; Predicts New Gains for Nation Because of Its Freedoms| newspaper=The New York Times| date=August 10, 1964| access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref> He died in New York City on October 20, 1964, following massive [[internal bleeding]].<ref>{{Cite news| title=Herbert Hoover Is Dead; Ex-President, 90, Served Country in Varied Fields| last=Phillips| first=McCandlish| date=October 21, 1964|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0810.html| publisher=The Learning Network: [[The New York Times]] on the web| access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref><ref name=bbupidan>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FzxYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aPcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1272%2C2733112 |work=The Bulletin |location=(Bend, Oregon) |agency=UPI |last=Justice |first=Charles J. |title=Ex-President Herbert Hoover dead at 90 |date=October 20, 1964 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=hdanali>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wH1IAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5537%2C2967559 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |agency=Associated Press |last=Everett |first=Arthur |title=Hoover dies at 90 after long illness |date=October 21, 1964 |page=1}}</ref> Though Hoover's last spoken words are unknown, his last-known written words were a get-well message to his friend former President Harry S. Truman, six days before his death, after he heard that Truman had sustained injuries from slipping in a bathroom:<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mancini |first1=Mark |title=Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover: An Unlikely Friendship |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/52420/harry-truman-and-herbert-hoover-unlikely-friendship |website=Mentalfloss.org |date=August 30, 2013 |publisher=Mentalfloss |access-date=April 6, 2019}}</ref>  {{blockquote|"Bathtubs are a menace to ex-presidents for as you may recall a bathtub rose up and [[Fractured vertebra|fractured my vertebrae]] when I was in [[Venezuela]] on your world famine mission in 1946. My warmest sympathy and best wishes for your recovery."}}Two months earlier on August 10, Hoover reached the age of 90,<ref name=bbaugtn>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M_hYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TvcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1352%2C5635225 |work=The Bulletin |location=(Bend, Oregon) |agency=UPI |last=Wilson |first=Lyle |title=Hoover, 90 years today, wants no honors |date=August 10, 1964 |page=4}}</ref><ref name=pipgnin>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NtgNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yGwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7143%2C1046713 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |agency=Associated Press |last=Daniell |first=Raymond |title=Hoover marking 90th birthday |date=August 10, 1964 |page=7}}</ref> only the second U.S. president (after [[John Adams]]) to do so. When asked how he felt on reaching the milestone, Hoover replied, "Too old."<ref name=Hoover90NYT/> At the time of his death, Hoover had been out of office for over 31 years ({{age in days|1933|3|4|1964|10|20|format=commas}} days all together). This was the longest retirement in presidential history, surpassing Adams' 25 years, until [[Jimmy Carter]] broke that record in September 2012.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=John| last=Dillon| title=The Record-Setting Ex-Presidency of Jimmy Carter| url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/the-record-setting-ex-presidency-of-jimmy-carter/262143/| magazine=[[The Atlantic]]| publisher=[[Emerson Collective]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|date=September 9, 2012|access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref>

President [[Lyndon Johnson]] ordered flags flown at half-staff and was among the 500 guests invited for the funeral service held at [[St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church]], Other dignitaries included former Vice President Nixon, Representative [[William E. Miller]], Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]], former Governor Thomas E. Dewey, former Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]], former Postmaster General [[James A. Farley]], Rear Admiral [[Lewis L. Strauss]] and Senators [[Hubert H. Humphrey]], [[Barry Goldwater]], [[Kenneth Keating]], and [[Jacob Javits]]. 

Hoover was honored with a [[State funerals in the United States|state funeral]] in which he [[lying in state#United States|lay in state]] in the [[United States Capitol rotunda]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/lying-state-honor| title=Lying in State or in Honor | publisher=Architect of the Capitol| location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref> President Johnson and First Lady [[Lady Bird Johnson]] attended, but former presidents Truman and Eisenhower were both too ill to attend. Then, on October 25, he was buried in West Branch, Iowa, near his [[Presidential library system|presidential library]] and birthplace on the grounds of the [[Herbert Hoover National Historic Site]]. Afterwards, Hoover's wife, Lou Henry Hoover, who had been buried in Palo Alto, California, following her death in 1944, was re-interred beside him.<ref>{{cite web| title=Gravesite| website=nps.gov| url=https://www.nps.gov/heho/learn/historyculture/gravesite.htm| publisher=National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior| access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref> Hoover was the last surviving member of the Harding and Coolidge cabinets. [[John Nance Garner]] (the speaker of the House during the second half of Hoover's term) was the only person in Hoover's [[United States presidential line of succession]] he did not outlive.

The state funeral was the third in a span of twelve months, following those of [[State funeral of John F. Kennedy|President John F. Kennedy]] and [[General of the Army]] [[Douglas MacArthur]]. [[Black Jack (horse)|Black Jack]] was the riderless horse in all three funerals.