‘An Alien Administration’

Abstract

One student of Herbert Hoover’s foreign policy has characterized Hoover’s attitude toward the British as ‘colored by a feeling of kinship but… not overly enthusiastic.’ Though he was no admirer of England’s class-based social structure or of the Empire, he trusted the British and regarded them personally as friends. Certainly he preferred the English to other foreigners; he once claimed that he ‘would rather have an Englishman’s mere confirmation letter of a verbal agreement than the most elaborate contract with any European national.’ Hoover had lived a good portion of his adult life abroad, including a stint in England, and thus brought to the White House a level of cosmopolitanism that stood in marked contrast to his two predecessors. He listed among British virtues ‘[i]ntimate professional associations, loyal friendships, generous hospitality, constant glimpses of moral sturdiness, great courage, a high sense of sportsmanship, and cultivated minds.’ Hoover’s campaign against British rubber restrictions during his tenure as Secretary of Commerce was no evidence of any real anglophobia on his part, but rather of his disdain for government involvement in the ‘bickerings and higgling of the market.’ ¹