Conversation. We are grateful to cspan for broadcasting this evening. And for their support in taking what is a critical topic as part of the commemorative activities of world war i and to public. It seems to me that the experience of the american response to world war i represents something of the very essence of the american experiment. Who could not argue that the core values of america were expressed by the belgian relief efforts during world war i . They said they had been organized by hoover for the commission of release of belgium. Grassroots to response of National Crisis in belgium and france. Starvation due to the ravages of war. It seems to me that it is expressive of so many of the core values that seem to claim us as we think about this american experiment. Through the efforts of hoover and the commission, of the 9 Million People, each day were fed in belgium and north france. The opportunity to discuss contemporary parallels as it relates to need certainly are tempting. The impact of Herbert Hoover has been felt throughout the globe. I was delighted that dr. Nash relayed the history of hoover to me earlier and spending time in australia. So there you go. Maybe his roots are not just about american values. Tonight, we are especially grateful and welcoming some of the foremost experts. He has given thought to herbert the work of Herbert Hoover. George nash received his degree at harvard in 1975. His published he is published widely. There is a biography under the general title the life of Herbert Hoover freedom betrayed Herbert Hoovers secret history. Any crusade years, his lost memoir of a new deal era and its aftermath. From 87 to 95, president ial appointment, he served on it National Commission of libraries. He served in many esteemed organizations and colleges throughout the world. He has received the Richard Weaver prize of scholarly letters and is written also in publications such as the neobook review, the national review, the wall street journal and many others. Lectured at the library of congress, the National Archives, ever president ial libraries and on cspan. And in 2007 and 2006 he delivered the Herbert Hoover related lectures in brussels. He was featured in the documentary films landslide and the great famine. That was televised nationally on pbs in 2009 and 2011 respectively. There is no doubting that we have someone in our midst who has a deep understanding and i am proud and partnership with the National Archives of kansas city lucky new to this presentation titled uber hoover Herbert Hoover the great humanitarian. Please welcome to the stage dr. George nash. [applause] dr. Nash thank you for that very gracious introduction. It is a pleasure and indeed an honor to be deep guest this evening of the National World war i museum and the moral introduction with the National Archives. I want to thank you, holly ides, and haley sheriff for all of the courtesies you have extended to make here in kansas city. It is a pleasure to be in this room at this time. In the summer of 2014, the nations of europe north america, australia and new zealand and mark the centenary of the First World War. The commemoration so far has largely been a suburb one. Haunted by memories of soldiers subsisting and money treasures muddy trenches. Battle sites for the dumb and the sum. They have been scenes of poignant ceremonies and prayer. There was another dimension of the great war as it was then called that should not be overlooked. For out of it, something positive and transformative came. That is at its center, a man who was the subject of my remarks this evening. On august 10, 1914, Herbert Hoover turned 40 years old. A highly since excel successful mining engineer. Yet been planning for several years to return home to california. Where he hoped to enter what he called the big game of Public Service. This orphaned son of quaker pioneers had come far from his humble again is in a tiny beginning in the state of iowa. Rising rapidly in his chosen profession of money engineering after graduating from stanford university, he controlled in part or directed a worldwide array of Money Enterprises that employ hundreds of men. Having achieved his early ambition of earning a fortune by the age of 40, he told a friend that just making money is not enough. He wanted to do something more. His opportunity arose and circumstances he could not have imagined. Just a few days before his 40th birthday, most of europe plunged into the greatest Armed Conflict and 100 years. On august 4, as Great Britain declared war on imperial germany, he wrote to a friend if my judgment of the situation is right, we are on the verge of seven years of considerable vibration. The american engineer was more prophetic than he knew. Private nation did indeed in gulf much of the world. The struggle against it became the arching theme of his life during that. Not personal private should of course. He remained financially independent. Nor was the larger struggle one that you have been obligated to confront. He could have avoided it if you wanted to. And, by virtue of his strategic place and International Money ventures, that have profited immensely from a warring worlds misfortune. Instead, by a combination of duty, desire to serve and sheer love of accomplishment, over concentrated himself to a mission. Between 1914 and 1921, coping with revolution and hunger. He absorbed his superabundant energies. In the chaotic early weeks of the fighting, hoover and other leading americans resident in london organized emergency relief assistance for more than 100,000 american travelers, playing the continent of europe for london and safe passage home. Overs of efficient leadership of this effort impressed the American Ambassador to Great Britain. He, along with others soon tapped hoover for a far greater visit mission. In the summer of 1914, and in dating german army overran the small, neutral nation of belgium. Dependent upon imported food imported food for most of its consumption. It was trapped between a occupier and the British Naval blockade of the enemy. The belgiumbased starvation unless sustenance to somehow be obtained on the outside world. With the approval of ambassador page, and the acquiescence of the warring british and german governments, over established on october 20, 1914, a neutral, benevolent entity called the commission for relief in elgin. He transported into belgium, who for the belgium populace which was beleaguered. Initially, no one anticipated that this humanitarian mission would last more than a few months. The kaiser of germany famously predicted that the war would be over by christmas. Instead, it generated into a gruesome stalemate on the western front. Overs emergency relief for taking turned into an elaborate enterprise without precedent in history. An organized rescue of an entire nation of starvation. Within a few months, over and his team of mostly american volunteers built the crv into a remarkable organization. It was called a piratical state organized for benevolence. It had its own flag, its own fleet. It negotiated treaties with the war european powers. Its leader, hoover enjoyed formal diplomatic immunity and traveled freely through enemy lines. The only american citizen permitted to do so or the entire war. The tasks for relief in belgium were daunting. First, it had to raise money throughout the world. Initially through charitable appeals. But as the war went on, subsidies from the french, british and u. S. Governments came along. With this money it had to purchase wheat from north america, south america and australia. That it had to shift to these foodstuffs to belgium. Went when it shifted to the european war zone, they were required to navigate carefully lest they be seized by the british navy or subjected to german submarine attack. When the food reached the neutral support of rotterdam, their cargo had to be unloaded for conveyance by canal into isolated belgium. Once inside the occupied country, the supplies had to be prepared for human consumption. In mills, dairies, bakeries. Then the food had to be distributed equitably to a desperate population of more than 7 million women and children. Scattered over 2500 villages, cities and towns. As part of it possible to faceted work, it needed to verify that the daily food allotment reached their intended recipients. Not the german army of occupation. They had pledged not to steal or interfere. Working with Herbert Hoover and his staff were 10,000 elgin belgian volunteers. They were known as the National Committee of care and feeding. It has some of the countrys most prominent business leaders. They were under german occupation. They did not have the freedom to exercise surveillance and control the flow as the neutral americans did. One object of special solicitude was young people. It was our task and the belgians to maintain the laughter of the children, not to dry away their tears. The challenge was impressively met by early 1917. Three quarters of belgium children were receiving daily hot lunches specifically for that purpose. As in all this were not enough, in early 1915, overs organization was permitted to extend its lifesustaining operations to more than 2 million french civilians living behind the german lines on the western front. Between 1914 and the cessation of its work in the summer of 1919, the crv delivered nearly 5 Million Metric Tons of supplies to more than 9 million civilians inside of belgium and german occupied northern france. In doing so, it expanded more than 12 billion today. Because of these exertions, hoover, working voluntarily and without pay became an international hero. The embodiment of a new force in global politics. In 1916, the British Foreign office described him as the advanced guard and symbol of the sense of responsibility for the American People toward europe. That same year, Brown University and the United States awarded hoover its his first honorary degree. For hoover, the belgian relief effort turned out to be his first great act in an extraordinary career on the public stage. When the United States entered the war, in april of 1917, he left daytoday supervision of the crv to subordinates and returned to america. In short order, he was appointed head of the u. S. Food administration. A special, wartime agency created at the request of Woodrow Wilson to stimulate a American Food production. Food will win the war became his slogan. By 1918, the United States under its food controller guidance and become a cornucopia upon which the beleaguered british, french and italians could draw with increasing confidence. Just five days after the armistice in 1918, resident wilson president wilson dispatched him to a continent careening toward disaster. By now, little belgium was not the only nation at risk. In the months following the end of world war i, mn, disease and bloody revolution swept across such of europe. It threw us under a civilization already traumatized by the war to end all wars. American and allied leaders struggle to draft a peace treaty in paris, hoover as director of the general belief and chairman of the Relief Administration organized the first version food to hungry people and helped to quell the danger of communist revolutions in Central Europe. The task that hoover and his associates performed, many of them loaned to him from the u. S. Army of occupation was most simple in the process of handing the food to the needy. Many of the needy nations he had served and only rudimentary government machinery. Some were brandnew countries like yugoslavia and czechoslovakia. The Transportation Systems have broken down. Every frontier was a barrier of suspicion. Ethnic tensions and separatist impulses abounded. The american led relief programs also entailed much more than keeping a step ahead of famine. Economic recovery and increased productivity were crucial if europe was to find up its wounds. Many of hoovers policies and 1919 designed to achieve this objective. He arranged for hundreds of American Engineers and other experts to become technical advisors to the fledgling governments. Of austria, poland and czechoslovakia and yugoslavia. They worked to reorganize railways, create efficient transportation networks, reform currencies and modernize agriculture. Hoover also helped to reopen the vital river basin to commerce. He dispatched american agents to silesia and other mining regions. They helped to settle strikes and increase urgently needed production of coal. With the signing of the treaty of versailles in the summer of 1919, hoovers relief and reconstruction efforts entered a new phase. The american Relief Administration was reconstituted as a nongovernmental organization. With hoover himself at the helm. It became part of a growing empire of philanthropy that he and his associates developed to cope with the great wars aftermath at home and abroad. The aras european Childrens Fund for example concentrated on providing daily meals to an estimated 3 million children in eastern and Central Europe in the early 1920s. Undoubtedly, the most extraordinary postwar undertaking occurred in soviet russia. More than two years after the great war officially ended. There from 1921 to 1923 in response to a f ta plea from rn communist dictatorship for outside assistance, the ara organized an American Relief program to combat a devastating famine in the Boulder River region. The worst famine in middle europe in the middle ages. 5 million russians died before the supplies can reach them but million moores millions more survived. At the peak, the organization fed upwards of 10 Million People a day. And possibly 20 million in all during its two years of operation. All in all, between 1914 and 1923, hoover directed, financed or assisted a multitude of International Humanitarian relief efforts without parallel in history. During this nearly tenure. , the crv, the u. S. Food administration, the ara and other various governments and private organizations deliver nearly 34 Million Metric Tons of food. That was to the lands and people imperiled by world war i and its aftermath. The monetary value of this sustenance valued in todays currency exceeded 60 ilion dollars. For most of this undertaking, the man with this responsibility was hoover. No one knows exactly how many people owed their lives to his exertions. We do know this, between 1914 and 1923, literally tens of millions of men, women and children in more than 20 nations received food allotment for which hoover and his associates were at least partly responsible. Tens of millions of people, it is a staggering figure. But whatever the precise number, hoovers standing in the annals of organized humanitarianism is beyond dispute. As someone remarked a number of years ago, Herbert Hoover was responsible for saving more lives than any other person in history. What did this son of and i will blacksmith defeat what he called the greatest famine of all times . Did he earn his epithet, the great humanitarian and the master of emergencies, he labeled it the slippery road of public life. A path that led him to the president of the United States in 1920. Experiences of this magnitude cannot fail to have impact on the human beings caught up in them. Such was the case with hoover. For all of the satisfactions of Public Service as a humanitarian, there was a price that he had to pay. Time and again, between 19 14 and 1920, hoover and his wife underwent the pangs of war induced separation. Both from each other and from their two young sons. During one stretch, early in the war, he did not see his sons for nearly a year. They were back in california, going to school. Away from the was an obviously. The emotional strain of the work manifested itself most notably in what he experienced on or near the european battlefields. On december 1, 1914, he visited a canteen in brussels. Some of the citys destitute judo for their daily ration. They watched hundreds of the poor standing, uncomplaining late in the rain. Shivering, grasping bowls, pictures and precious little cards that would guarantee them a meal. Upon receiving his or her allotment, each would pause, bow and utter the single word, merci. Hoover of verdict his gaze and silently stared into the distance. After this traumatic experience, hoover rarely measured near a belgian breadline again. According to luke, her husband could not visit one unless literally compelled to. He would have his eyes near full of tears before he leaves. The pay off of the long line of expected, chattering mites, belgian children with a ticket of authority and to the chest or held in its grimy fest was for this orphaned island too much to bear. Nor could hoover forget the glances he saw of the battle of the sum. From behind german lies in northern france and the summer of 19 16 when he was visiting that region as a part of his relief work. It was a scene that haunted his memories. I quote him now. We motive for several hours to a point near a hilltop observation in