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The
first part of this two-part article on the friendship
between Presidents Truman and Hoover appeared in the Spring
1990 issue of Whistle Stop. The article was adapted
by Professor Donald R. McCoy from a talk that he gave
on December 9, 1989 in Kansas City Missouri.
In
Part I of his article, Professor
McCoy discussed the evolution of the friendship between
the two men and how, despite the disparity of background
and political persuasion, their guarded respect for one
another ripened into affection.
Part
II of Professor McCoy's article continues to examine that
Presidential friendship within both apolitical and personal
context. For example, he discusses the ebb and flow of
Truman's support of Hoover's recommendations to reform
the Government's operation -- the Hoover Commission's
titanic report launched almost 300 reforms -- and how
Truman's criticism sometimes led to strained, even bitter
relations between them.
After
Truman left the pressures of the White House, a more personal,
lighter side of their friendship was able to emerge. Now
that both of them were viewed as Elder Statesmen they
stood on equal footing on common ground.
Part
II touches on such subjects as the ethical responsibilities
they shared as ex-Presidents, and the fund raising as
well as emotional support each gave the other in building
their Presidential libraries. As described in Part I,
they had discovered they also shared a common bond dating
from their separate experiences during the World War I
period. Hoover held several important posts under President
Wilson, and Truman was commander of an artillery battery
in France. Truman once wrote to a friend that in rating
the Presidents he would rank Wilson only below Washington
and Jefferson; and when Hoover's book, The Ordeal of
Woodrow Wilson, was published in 1958 Truman read
it with critical approval.
Donald
R. McCoy is University Distinguished Professor of History
at the University of Kansas. A past contributor to Whistle
Stop, his article "Harry S. Truman: Sprendthrift or
Fiscal Conservative" appeared in Volume 13, Number
1, 1985.
In
1947, Herbert Hoover was on the threshold of his most
visible post-presidential public service. Long an advocate
of reorganizing the executive branch of Government in
the causes of efficiency and economy, he supported Truman's
efforts in 1945 to secure congressional approval of
reorganization. Eventually in 1947 Congress authorized
the establishment of the bipartisan Commission on the
Organization of the Executive Branch. Hoover became
chairman of this commission, and so active and effective
was he that it became known as the Hoover Commission.
There
are two stories as to how he became chairman. One is
that conservative Republicans in Congress maneuvered
so that only he could be chosen; the other is that President
Truman, knowing that a Republican had to fill the job
in order to satisfy the Republican Eightieth Congress,
considered Hoover the only acceptable choice. The truth,
in brief, is that fiercely opposing forces on Capitol
Hill and in the White House could easily agree only
on Hoover.
There
is a dark side to Hoover's chairmanship, as there was
to his part in the food relief efforts of 1945, 1946,
and 1947. In this case as in those, he believed that
he would not be allowed to have signal success. In this
case as in those, he was wrong, It is true that Truman
did not give Hoover quite as much support and agreement
as he wanted. After all, President Truman not only had
a mind of his own but he had other people to satisfy,
which Hoover as a former President should have appreciated.
Yet grumble as Hoover did throughout the years of formulating
the Commission's recommendations and seeking Congressional
approval of them, the fact is that 70 percent of these
recommendations were adopted, almost all of them with
Truman's earnest support. Thus the executive branch
was substantially revamped, far more often than not
with efficiency and economy the victors.
The
story of other Truman-Hoover teamwork between 1945 and
1953 is less dramatic, and Hoover's support usually
lukewarm. The former President strenuously tried to
alter the concept of the Marshall Plan before finally
endorsing it. He supported Truman in meeting aggression
in Korea, but had reservations about continuing the
war. Indeed from late 1950 till 1952 Hoover urged reducing
American commitments abroad because he felt that threatened
countries should be doing more to assume the burden
of their own defense. His initial public comments on
this spurred the so-called Great Debate in Congress
in 1951 to reduce American troop deployments to Europe.
Truman won this battle, but not without paying a high
price politically. One can still argue about the relative
merits of the positions of these two men.
Surprisingly,
these battles did not poison their relationship, although
there was no significant joint action by them between
the end of the Great Debate and Truman's departure from
the White House. Yet during the Great Debate Truman
consulted Hoover on famine relief for India, which Congress
approved in June 1951. Also Truman in trying to counter
McCarthyite charges of Communist infiltration in Government
established a blue-ribbon bipartisan committee to inquire
into the issue. He asked Hoover to serve as the committee's
chairman, but the former President, although sympathetic
with Truman's dilemma, declined because he did not think
the effort would work. How right Hoover was, for the
committee got into an irresolvable imbroglio with the
Senate Judiciary Committee and thus never functioned.
During
Harry Truman's years in the White House, he and Herbert
Hoover often met, exchanged communications, and talked
on the telephone. At times, partisan politics stood
between them. Despite their several outstanding instances
of cooperation, neither Truman nor Hoover abandoned
their political party activities. Truman at least until
1956 considered Hoover to be in the "far-right class,"
and Hoover considered Truman to be a very partisan Democrat.
Although Hoover had written in 1946 that Truman was
decidedly mediocre as President, in 1947 he rated him
as a very capable politician. He was particularly disturbed
in the spring of 1948 that Truman was "putting on a
fear and war blitz" regarding the Soviet Union, "possibly
to create a sense of emergency which would be useful
in the forthcoming [election] campaign." By September
Hoover was vexed by Truman, in his campaign for the
Presidency, reverting to the long-time Democratic practice
of holding him up as the bogey man of the Great, Depression.
Hoover, of course, had been giving advice to the Republicans
and particularly to Thomas Dewey, his party's 1948 presidential
nominee. Yet Hoover did not go overboard. His speech
to the 1948 Republican National Convention was so statesmanlike
that President Truman wrote him a congratulatory letter.
Moreover, Hoover decided to make no political speeches
during the campaign, reflecting both his forbearance
and his preoccupation with the work of the Hoover Commission.
There
was, of course, a good deal of courtesy between Truman
and Hoover. For example, there was no portrait of the
late Mrs. Hoover in the White House, so in 1949 Harry
and Bess Truman asked Hoover for a painting of her to
display there. Also Truman mentioned that he partly
looked forward to his retirement so he could dismantle
the iron fence which the Secret Service had erected
for security purposes around the Truman home in Independence,
Missouri. Hoover advised him against doing this, saying
that former Presidents needed a screen against curiosity-seekers.
Hoover was right and the fence stayed up. In 1950 after
Truman telephoned Hoover at a formal dinner occasion,
Hoover wrote him at length to explain why he had been
unable to rush to the telephone. In 1951 the former
President wrote Truman to disavow a distressing interpretation
that columnist Walter Winchell had placed on recent
remarks of Hoover's. The President replied, "It is very
difficult for Mr. Winchell to state the facts even when
he knows what they are ... Any statement by Winchell,
or any other columnist, would have no effect on my always
kindly feeling toward you."
Partisan
warfare again intruded upon Truman and Hoover's relationship
in 1952. Hoover's address to the Republican National
Convention then included biting remarks about the Democratic
leadership of the nation since 1933 as did his one campaign
speech. Truman likewise made partisan remarks about
the Republicans which included the Hoover administration,
but these comments were muted compared with those of
1948.
When
Truman left the White House in 1953, it was problematic
whether there would be much of a relationship between
Hoover and him in the future. Each had gotten, bluntly
put, all he could have officially out of the other by
then. In 1954 Hoover declined to attend a seventieth
birthday dinner for Truman, commenting on "Mr. Truman's
many personal attacks on me." Yet Hoover added that
he thought higher of Truman and his policies than did
many other Republicans: he hoped that he and his fellow
former President would find cause for joint action in
the future. This was not long in coming.
In
1955 Truman paid a courtesy call on Hoover in New York
City and Hoover became a sponsor for fundraising efforts
for the proposed Harry S. Truman Library. This mutual
concern for preserving the documentation of their presidencies
was to forge a strong link between them from then on.
Truman invited Hoover to attend the dedication of his
presidential library in Independence in 1957. Hoover
immediately responded that "one of the important jobs
of our very exclusive trade union is preserving libraries."
Soon he wrote that "I will be at the dedication except
for acts of God or evil persons." He did attend, and
he made generous remarks about Truman and the Harry
S. Truman Library. When in 1960 Truman proposed visiting
the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
at Stanford, Hoover was delighted and declared, "All
library founders must stand together."
When
the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library was dedicated
at West Branch, Iowa, in 1962, Truman was there, and
from all reports the two old gentlemen had a grand time
together. One of the memorable points in the visit occurred
as a result of Truman's pressing need to relieve himself
while Hoover was escorting him around the library's
grounds. The library's doors were locked and surrounded
by a huge crowd awaiting admission. It was pointed out
that there was a toilet in the caretaker's shed, which
was nearby. Alas, when the two former Presidents and
their security detail arrived there, they found the
door locked. Hoover said to force the door, but the
security men demurred. He insisted, pointing out that
when, elderly former Presidents had to go they had to
go quickly. The door was forced.
Many
complimentary personal messages had passed between Truman
and Hoover by then, and one need not detail all of them.
Woodrow Wilson continued to be one of the bonds between
the two men. In 1958 Hoover published his critically
acclaimed book The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson.
Hoover, as one President writing about another, enjoyed
the note he received from yet another President, Harry
S. Truman, to wit, "I am reading your biography of Wilson
and I like it." Truman and Hoover also had begun consulting
each other about what their public affiliations and
honorary chairmanships should be, thus reinforcing their
common dedication to avoiding any involvement that might
demean the high office of President. When in 1959 President
Dwight D. Eisenhower nomination of Lewis Strauss as
Secretary of Commerce ran into trouble in the Senate,
Hoover asked Truman to help this man who had formerly
served both of them. Truman replied that a "President
ought not be capriciously opposed in his Cabinet proposals.
Admiral Strauss served my administration faithfully
and capably." Despite this, Strauss's nomination failed.
The
Hoover Commission also bonded Truman and Hoover together.
In late 1955 Hoover appeared on the "Meet the Press"
television program and paid high tribute to Truman for
his "unfailing and able support." Truman in a letter
of appreciation to Hoover took the occasion to write,
"I value your friendship very highly and am sure that
you and I will continue in the same vein even though
we may not agree all the time as to policy. I don't
think a man has to make a personal matter out of things
of that sort."
Hoover,
of course, had been chosen in 1953 to be the chairman
of the Second Hoover Commission under Eisenhower. Although
Hoover had carped about Truman's occasional uncooperativeness
on the work of the first Hoover Commission, Hoover's
experience this time put that into perspective and undoubtedly
helped to change his mind about Truman's level of support.
Thanks to Eisenhower's procrastination in submitting
to Congress the second Hoover Commission's reports on
reorganizing the executive branch, far fewer of his
recommendations were approved compared to the 70 percent
approval of the first Hoover Commission's reports. One
result was that Hoover later ranked Eisenhower as President
with Calvin Coolidge. This was not meant as a compliment.
Hoover was probably as grudging as was Harry Truman
when the time came in 1961 for Eisenhower to join their
"very exclusive trade union," of which Truman called
Hoover president and himself secretary. Truman's comment
was, "I guess we'll have to let Ike be a member."
While
Truman and Hoover talked when they got together about
many things, especially -- according to "What it was
like being President," they did not discuss politics.
As Truman put it, "We never could have agreed." Hoover
expressed it another way in 1960 when a reporter asked
him how he would vote: "I received the great honor of
the Presidency of the United States from the Republican
party. I will naturally vote for its ticket. And I have
no doubt my good friend President Truman will vote the
Democratic ticket."
But
age was catching up with the two old statesmen, who
from the start to the end of their relationship always
addressed each other as 'Mr. President." By 1962, with
their presidential libraries built, there was not much
left for them as movers and shakers. They did then join
together along with Eisenhower to become honorary chairmen
of the Atlantic Council to promote community among the
nations bordering the north Atlantic Ocean. Truman and
Hoover also supported a new President, John F. Kennedy,
in the resumption of nuclear bomb testing in order to
maintain the defenses of the United States.
The
relationship between Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover
came to an end in October 1964. Hoover wrote their last
communication to commiserate with Truman over a serious
fall against his bathtub. As Hoover telegraphed, "BATHTUBS
ARE A MENACE TO EX-PRESIDENTS ... AS YOU MAY RECALL
A BATHTUB ROSE UP AND FRACTURED MY VERTEBRAE WHEN I
WAS IN VENEZUELA ON YOUR WORLD FAMINE MISSION IN 1946."
Hoover died six days later, and Truman never really
recovered from his accident.
Thus
ended one of the more remarkable friendships of our
century, one based in no small part on the significant
and shaping experiences which both men had during the
Wilson years. If the relationship of Truman and Hoover
between 1945 and 1953 was founded on mutual convenience,
it ripened into friendship thereafter, a friendship
which both men worked hard at and one which transcended
partisanship. This is a legacy all Americans should
prize.
by
DONALD R. McCOY
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