George H. Nash - Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoovers Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath

Praise for Freedom Betrayed

Finally, after waiting for close to half a century, we now have Hoovers massive and impassioned account of American foreign policy from 1933 to the early 1950s. Thanks to the efforts of George H. Nash, there exists an unparalleled picture of Hoovers world view, one long shared by many conservatives. Nashs thorough and perceptive introduction shows why he remains Americas leading Hoover scholar.

J USTUS D . D OENECKE , author of Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 19391941

A forcefully argued and well documented alternative to, and critique of, the conventional liberal historical narrative of Americas road to war and its war aims. Even readers comfortable with the established account will find themselves thinking that on some points the accepted history should be reconsidered and perhaps revised.

J OHN E ARL H AYNES , author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

Freedom Betrayed offers vivid proof of William Faulkners famous dictum that The past is never dead. Its not even past. For those who might think that history has settled the mantle of consensus around the events of the World War II era, Hoovers iconoclastic narrative will come as an unsettling reminder that much controversy remains. By turns quirky and astute, in prose that is often acerbic and unfailingly provocative, Hoover opens some old wounds and inflicts a few new ones of his own, while assembling a passionate case for the tragic errors of Franklin Roosevelts diplomacy. Not all readers will be convinced, but Freedom Betrayed is must-read for anyone interested in the most consequential upheaval of the twentieth century.

D AVID M . K ENNEDY is professor of history emeritus at Stanford University and the author of Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 19291945.

Herbert Hoovers Freedom Betrayed is a bracing work of historical revisionism that takes aim at U.S. foreign policy under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Part memoir and part diplomatic history, Hoovers magnum opus seeks to expose the lost statesmanship that, in Hoovers eyes, needlessly drew the United States into the Second World War and, in the aftermath, facilitated the rise to global power of its ideological rival, the Soviet Union. Freedom Betrayed, as George Nash asserts in his astute and authoritative introduction, resembles a prosecutors brief against Rooseveltand against Winston Churchill as wellat the bar of history. Thanks to Nashs impressive feat of reconstruction, Hoovers thunderbolt now strikesnearly a half-century after it was readied. The former presidents interpretation of the conduct and consequences of the Second World War will not entirely persuade most readers. Yet, as Nash testifies, like the best kind of revisionist history, Freedom Betrayed challenges us to think afresh about our past.

B ERTRAND M . P ATENAUDE , author of A Wealth of Ideas: Revelations from the Hoover Institution Archives

What an amazing historical find! Historian George H. Nash, the dean of Herbert Hoover studies, has brought forth a very rare manuscript in Freedom Betrayed. Here is Hoover unplugged, delineating on everything from the lost statesmanship of FDR to the Korean War. A truly invaluable work of presidential history. Highly recommended.

D OUGLAS B RINKLEY is professor of history at Rice University and editor of The Reagan Diaries.

Nearly fifty years after his death, Herbert Hoover returns as the ultimate revisionist historian, prosecuting his heavily documented indictment of US foreign policy before, during, and after the Second World War. Brilliantly edited by George Nash, Freedom Betrayed is as passionate as it is provocative. Many no doubt will dispute Hoovers strategic vision. But few can dispute the historical significance of this unique volume, published even as Americans of the twenty-first century debate their moral and military obligations.

R ICHARD N ORTON S MITH is a presidential historian and author, former director of several presidential libraries, and current scholar-in-residence at George Mason University.

Freedom Betrayed

F REEDOM
B ETRAYED

Herbert Hoovers Secret History
of the Second World War
and Its Aftermath

Edited with an Introduction by

George H. Nash

HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS

Stanford University Stanford, California

T HE H OOVER I NSTITUTION ON W AR, R EVOLUTION AND P EACE , founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the thirty-first president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic and international affairs. The views expressed in its publications are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, officers, or Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution.

www.hoover.org

Hoover Institution Press Publication No.

Hoover Institution at Leland Stanford Junior University,

Stanford, California, 94305-6010

All editorial contributions and writings, including the Editors Introduction,
copyright 2011 by George H. Nash

Copyright for the material from the published and unpublished works of Herbert Hoover is held by the heirs of the Herbert C. Hoover estate and the Herbert Hoover Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher and copyright holders.

The photographs included in this volume are primarily from the collections of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and the Hoover Institution Archives. Efforts have been made to locate the original sources, determine the current rights holders, and, if needed, obtain reproduction permissions. Upon verification of any claims to rights in the photos reproduced in this book, any required corrections or clarifications will be made in subsequent printings or editions.

First printing 2011

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoover, Herbert, 18741964, author.

Freedom betrayed : Herbert Hoovers secret history of the Second World War
and its aftermath / edited with an introduction by George H. Nash.

p. cm. (Hoover Institution Press publication ; No. 598)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8179-1234-5 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8179-1236-9 (e-book)

1. World War, 19391945United States. 2. United StatesForeign relations19331945. 3. United StatesForeign relations19451953.
4. United StatesPolitics and government19331953. 5. Cold War.
I. Nash, George H., 1945 editor. II. Title. III. Series: Hoover Institution Press publication ; 598.

D H 68 2011

940.53 73dc23

2011036861

CONTENTS

SECTION I
A Great Intellectual and Moral Plague Comes to Free Men

SECTION II
I Make an Appraisal of the Forces Moving among Nations in 1938

SECTION III
A Revolution in American Foreign Policies

SECTION IV
1939: In Europe, a Year of Monstrous Evils for Mankind

SECTION V
The Communist-Nazi Conquest of Europe