31.+Herbert+Hoover

=President Herbert Clark Hoover=

toc Quick Background Info August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964 31st President of the United States (1929-1933) No previous elected office experience Trained as a mining engineer at Stanford media type="youtube" key="4YaQcK2CdK4" height="313" width="504"

The Great Depression
President Hoover is often blamed for the crisis that was The Great Depression. It truly is not his fault for "leading" the United States into that economic crisis. Actually, it was the lack of involvement that the American people were not very fond of. During that time of economic hardship, the American people looked up to Hoover for guidance, but were utterly disappointed by the actions that President Hoover took. The actions, or lack of, Hoover took were most likely because of the ideology of the presidents from the "Roaring Twenties," laissez-faire. This was the economic philosophy used by Presidents Harding and Coolidge during their presidencies which meant a "leave it alone" sort of attitude. This philosophy allowed the markets to operate by themselves WITHOUT government interference. Many believe Hoover betrayed this ideology; therefore, causing the economic downturn. But, by looking at the condition of the Stock Market before Hoover took office in 1929, it can clearly be seen that the economy was turning downward. Although many remember Hoover as a failure of a president, he did however accomplish positive things during his time in office.

Helping Those Affected by The Great Depression
President Herbert Hoover gave a press conference in which he offered plans for relief of individuals and businesses affected by the series of devastating droughts that took place during the Depression. The droughts, combined with a major stock market crash in October 1929, resulted in a terrible economic condition in the country. In his statement, Hoover called for a mass mobilization of aid workers in response to the droughts, asked state governors to organize committees to draft suggestions on how to aid the unemployed, and worked with the Red Cross on getting immediate aid to impoverished families. He also proposed a plan that Franklin Roosevelt would later expand on: increasing federal money to drought-stricken areas to begin road-building programs for unemployed workers.

Settling Disputes Between Chile and Peru
-After the War of the Pacific ended in 1883, Chile and Peru still had several disputes over the remaining territorial differences. They eventually signed the Treaty of Ancón,but for several decades, the two countries were unable to reach agreement on the terms of a plebiscite, a kind of referendum. Finally in 1929, through the mediation of President Hoover, an agreement was reached. Some believe that this action could have possibly prevented an escalation of the disputes.

Withdraw of troops from Nicaragua and Haiti
-Soon after his election, Hoover took a goodwill trip to Latin America. While in Honduras, he announced that "We [the U.S.] have a desire to maintain not only the cordial relations of governments with each other, but also the relations of good neighbors. The intention of the new policy was to mend relations with Latin American countries after they criticized The Coolidge Administration during the Sixth Pan-American Conference in Havana in 1928 for armed interventions in Haiti and Nicaragua. U.S. relations with Latin America were at an all-time low. During The Hoover Administration, policies were put into place to improve relations, such as the [|Clark Memorandum] of 1930 in which the State Department retracted Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the 1823 [|Monroe Doctrine], which declared that only the United States could collect debts owed to foreigners by countries in the Western Hemisphere. The Clark Memorandum did not, however, reject the right to intervention itself. Also, Hoover's withdrawal of troops from Nicaragua and planned removal from Haiti improved U.S. relations with Latin America. These actions eventually lead to FDR's Good Neighbor Policy.