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Herbert Hoover Revises Remarkable Draft Letter of Dr. Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson
Herbert Hoover Revises Remarkable Draft Letter of Dr. Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson
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Description:

Hoover Herbert

Herbert Hoover Revises Remarkable Draft Letter of Dr. Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson 

 

This fascinating draft shows Herbert Hoover’s attempt to navigate the complicated politics of postwar Europe and revolutionary Russia to get desperately needed food supplies to starving Russians. He edited this letter sent by telegraph from Norwegian humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson

 

HERBERT HOOVER, Autograph Corrections in Pencil on Typed Drafts of a Letter by Fridtjof Nansen to Woodrow Wilson, March 31, 1919, 1 p., 8.5" x 13";  Typed Draft April 1, 1919, with typed note Gilbert F. Close, 4 pp., 4" x 5.25" to 8.5" x 13"; Typed Letter of Fridtjof Nansen to David Lloyd George, 3 pp., 8.25" x 10.75"  All text clear and dark; Some paper clip indentations.

 

Excerpts

Fridtjof Nansen to Woodrow Wilson, March 31, 1919:

“The present ^food^ situation in Russia, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying monthly from sheer starvation and disease, is one of the problems now uppermost in all men’s minds. As it appears that no solution of this ^food^ question has so far been reached by the Allied governments; therefore I ^we^ would like to make a suggestion on behalf of myself ^ourselves^ and some Neutral associates for the alleviation of this gigantic misery on purely humanitarian grounds.” [Insertions in Hoover’s hand.

 

“It would appear to me ^us^ possible to organize a Neutral Commission for the provisioning of Russia, the foodstuffs to be paid for perhaps to some considerable extent by Russia itself, the justice of distribution to be guaranteed by such a Commission I ^We^ cannot believe that the existing authorities in Russia would refuse the intervention of such a Commission of wholly non-political order, devoted solely to the humanitarian purpose of saving life.” [Insertions in Hoover’s hand.

 

“I am ^We are^ addressing a similar note to Messrs. Orlando, Clemenceau and Lloyd-George.”

 

Gilbert F. Close to Woodrow Wilson:

“Mr. Auchincloss tells me that the attached letter from Dr. Nansen was written after the proposal which he makes had been discussed by Mr. Hoover and Colonel House and others of the American Delegation.”

 

Fridtjof Nansen to David Lloyd-George, April 3, 1919:

“the membership of the Commission to be comprised of Norwegian, Swedish, and possibly Dutch, Danish and Swiss nationalities.... If thus organized upon the lines of the Belgian Relief Commission, it would raise no question of political recognition or negotiations between the Allies with the existing authorities in Russia.”

 

Historical Background

To combat starvation in Europe during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson created the United States Food Administration by executive order. Under the direction of Herbert Hoover, it became one of the most efficient and successful governmental initiatives in American history.

 

Although Norway, like Sweden and Demark, declared its neutrality during the war, its loss of overseas trade led to food shortages. In 1917, Norway sent explorer and scientist Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to the United States, where after months of discussion, he obtained food supplies in return for the establishment in Norway of a rationing system. He also met Herbert Hoover, and they quickly became good friends.

 

In Russia a pair of revolutions in 1917 left the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin in power, and Lenin ended Russian participation in World War I by March 1918. Civil war erupted within Russia, which continued for several years, but the Bolsheviks emerged victorious as the Communist Party, which led to the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922.

 

By the spring of 1919, Russia had been out of the war for a year, but the civil war created havoc, and millions neared starvation. To extend the reach of the American Relief Administration, which he directed, into Russia, Hoover needed to find a “neutral executive” like Nansen to serve as an intermediary with the Russians. Nansen sent an initial radio message to Lenin to gauge his interest in allowing a “purely humanitarian effort” to feed starving Russians.


On April 3, Nansen sent this telegram (edited by Hoover), to American President Woodrow Wilson, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando (the “Big Four” Allied leaders of postwar Europe), proposing the plan and, after obtaining approval, wired the offer to Lenin on April 17. The French, unwilling to do anything to keep the Bolsheviks in power, never sent Nansen’s telegram to Lenin. The offer had to be resent, by radio on May 3.

 

On May 6, Lenin wrote to People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin, “Be extremely polite to Nansen, extremely insolent to Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau. This is very useful, the only way to speak to them, the right tone.... Indeed, we must not miss the opportunity of replying to Nansen in a way that would make good propaganda.”

 

The Russians responded on May 14 (their reply was also blocked by the French but picked up by radio and relayed to Hoover), insisting that the Allied leaders were mixing politics with humanitarianism in their demands. The Bolsheviks refused to stop fighting until they had achieved their objectives and therefore blocked the proposed plan. 

 

Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was born in Iowa into a Quaker family, but both of his parents died before he was ten years old. After living with relatives in Iowa and Oregon, Hoover became one of the first students to attend newly established Stanford University, from which he graduated in 1895. Hoover worked as a mining engineer in California, Australia, and China. He became an independent mining consultant in 1908 and traveled the world until the outbreak of World War I, building his reputation and fortune. When the war began, he helped organize the return of 120,000 Americans from Europe and spearheaded humanitarian relief efforts in Belgium, from his administrative base in London. After the United States entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration. He lobbied for the job and agreed to accept no salary. After the war, the U.S. Food Administration became the American Relief Administration, which, at its height, fed 10.5 million people daily. Elected President of the United States in 1928, Hoover took office less than eight months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 plunged the nation into the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Hoover’s 1932 bid for reelection.

 

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, and became a champion skier and ice skater. He was an explorer, and led a North Pole expedition from 1893 to 1896. He studied zoology and his study of the central nervous system of marine creatures earned him a doctorate. He made many scientific cruises in his study of oceanography. From 1906 to 1908, Nansen served as the Norwegian representative to the United Kingdom. He devoted himself to the League of Nations and secured Norway’s participation in the League in 1920.  At the League’s request, he organized the repatriation of half a million prisoners of war, including 300,000 in Russia. Nansen received the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of persons displaced by World War I.

 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in Staunton, Virginia, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University. He served as president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and as governor of New Jersey from 1910 to 1913. Wilson won the presidential election of 1912, when William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote, and Wilson became the 28th President of the United States in March 1913. As the first southerner elected president since Zachary Taylor, Wilson brought to the office a progressive zeal for reform, both economic and social, and stressed individualism and states’ rights. He is perhaps best known for leading the United States into World War I, despite an election vow to do otherwise, and for helping to negotiate the resulting Treaty of Versailles, for which he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. Although he helped create and championed the League of Nations, Wilson could not obtain Senate approval for U.S. membership.

 

 

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