Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath Read online

  Praise for Freedom Betrayed

  “Finally, after waiting for close to half a century, we now have Hoover’s 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 Hoover’s world view, one long shared by many conservatives. Nash’s thorough and perceptive introduction shows why he remains America’s leading Hoover scholar.”

  —JUSTUS D. DOENECKE, author of Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939–1941

  “A forcefully argued and well documented alternative to, and critique of, the conventional liberal historical narrative of America’s 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.”

  —JOHN EARL HAYNES, author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

  “Freedom Betrayed offers vivid proof of William Faulkner’s famous dictum that “The past is never dead. It’s 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, Hoover’s 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 Roosevelt’s 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.”

  —DAVID M. KENNEDY is professor of history emeritus at Stanford University and the author of Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945.

  “Herbert Hoover’s 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, Hoover’s magnum opus seeks to expose the ‘lost statesmanship’ that, in Hoover’s 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 prosecutor’s brief against Roosevelt—and against Winston Churchill as well—at the bar of history. Thanks to Nash’s impressive feat of reconstruction, Hoover’s ‘thunderbolt’ now strikes—nearly a half-century after it was readied. The former president’s 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.”

  —BERTRAND M. PATENAUDE, 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.”

  —DOUGLAS BRINKLEY 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 Hoover’s 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.”

  —RICHARD NORTON SMITH is a presidential historian and author, former director of several presidential libraries, and current scholar-in-residence at George Mason University.

  Freedom Betrayed

  Herbert Hoover (1874–1964).

  Courtesy H. Hoover Presidential Library; Richard Beattie, photographer

  FREEDOM

  BETRAYED

  Herbert Hoover’s 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

  THE HOOVER INSTITUTION ON WAR, REVOLUTION AND PEACE, 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. 598

  Hoover Institution at Leland Stanford Junior University,

  Stanford, California, 94305-6010

  All editorial contributions and writings, including the Editor’s 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, 1874–1964, author.

  Freedom betrayed : Herbert Hoover’s 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, 1939–1945—United States. 2. United States—Foreign relations—1933–1945. 3. United States—Foreign relations—1945–1953.

  4. United States—Politics and government—1933–1953. 5. Cold War.

  I. Nash, George H., 1945– editor. II. Title. III. Series: Hoover Institution Press publication ; 598.

  D769.H68 2011

  940.5373—dc23

  2011036861

  CONTENTS

  Editor’s Acknowledgments

  Editor’s Introduction

  Editor’s Note on Sources and Editing Methods


  VOLUME I

  Introduction

  SECTION I

  A Great Intellectual and Moral Plague Comes to Free Men

  CHAPTER 1 The Creators, Leaders, Principles, and Methods of Communism

  CHAPTER 2 The Recognition of Soviet Russia in November 1933

  CHAPTER 3 The Kremlin Onslaught against the American People

  CHAPTER 4 Infiltration of Members of the Communist Party into the Federal Government

  CHAPTER 5 The Communist Fronts

  SECTION II

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

  Introduction

  CHAPTER 6 Belgium and France

  CHAPTER 7 Germany and Italy

  CHAPTER 8 Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland

  CHAPTER 9 Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden

  CHAPTER 10 Russia

  CHAPTER 11 China in 1938

  CHAPTER 12 Japan

  CHAPTER 13 The Decline and Fall of the League of Nations

  CHAPTER 14 Great Britain

  CHAPTER 15 My Report to the American People on the Forces in Motion in Europe

  SECTION III

  A Revolution in American Foreign Policies

  CHAPTER 16 President Roosevelt Abandons Isolationism and Enters Foreign Politics

  CHAPTER 17 Actions Stronger Than Words

  SECTION IV

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

  CHAPTER 18 The Rape of Czechoslovakia

  CHAPTER 19 Hitler Moves on Poland

  CHAPTER 20 Shall We Send Our Youth to War?

  CHAPTER 21 The Allies and Hitler Each Bid for an Alliance with Stalin

  CHAPTER 22 A Tragedy to All Mankind without End

  SECTION V

  The Communist-Nazi Conquest of Europe

  CHAPTER 23 Communist and Nazi Conquest of Poland and the Baltic States

  CHAPTER 24 The Surrender of Western Europe

  CHAPTER 25 A Great Trial for but No Defeat of Britain

  SECTION VI

  More American Action—Stronger Than Words—but Less Than War

  CHAPTER 26 Revision of the Neutrality Laws

  CHAPTER 27 Military Preparedness

  CHAPTER 28 More Than Words in the Balkans

  SECTION VII

  Brainwashing the American People

  CHAPTER 29 “Hitler’s Coming!”

  SECTION VIII

  The Revolution in American Foreign Policies Continued

  CHAPTER 30 The Presidential Election of 1940

  CHAPTER 31 The Lend-Lease Law [and] the ABC-1 Agreement

  CHAPTER 32 There Were to Be No Convoys

  SECTION IX

  The Opportunity to Make Lasting Peace

  Comes to Franklin Roosevelt

  CHAPTER 33 Hitler Turns His Might against Communist Russia

  CHAPTER 34 My Appeal That the United States Stay on the Sidelines until the Great Dictators Exhaust Each Other

  CHAPTER 35 The Reactions in the Western World

  SECTION X

  The Road to War

  CHAPTER 36 Via Germany

  CHAPTER 37 Via Germany (continued)

  CHAPTER 38 Via Japan—the Total Economic Sanctions on Japan and Japanese Proposals of Peace

  CHAPTER 39 Via Japan—Yet Again Comes a Chance for Peace in the Pacific

  CHAPTER 40 Via Japan—the Ultimatum

  CHAPTER 41 Via Japan—Pearl Harbor

  CHAPTER 42 Via Japan—Finding Someone to Blame

  VOLUME II

  SECTION XI

  The March of Conferences

  Introduction

  CHAPTER 43 The First Washington Conference: December 22, 1941, to January 14, 1942

  CHAPTER 44 The Second Washington Conference: June 18 to June 25, 1942

  CHAPTER 45 The Development of TORCH (the North African Campaign)

  CHAPTER 46 The Casablanca Conference: January 14 to January 24, 1943

  SECTION XII

  The March of Conferences

  CHAPTER 47 The Third Washington Conference: May 12 to May 25, 1943

  CHAPTER 48 The First Quebec Conference: August 11 to August 24, 1943

  CHAPTER 49 The First Moscow Conference: October 19 to October 30, 1943

  CHAPTER 50 The Supplementary Purposes of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and Chiang Kai-shek

  SECTION XIII

  The March of Conferences—The Tehran-Cairo Conferences November–December 1943

  CHAPTER 51 The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran: November 22 to December 7, 1943

  CHAPTER 52 The First Cairo Conference: November 22 to November 26, 1943

  CHAPTER 53 The Tehran Conference: November 27 to December 1, 1943

  CHAPTER 54 Other Conclusions at Tehran

  CHAPTER 55 The Second Cairo Conference: December 2 to December 7, 1943

  CHAPTER 56 The Two Great Commitments at Tehran Which Destroyed Freedom in Fifteen Nations

  CHAPTER 57 President Roosevelt’s Statements as to the Decisions at Cairo and Tehran

  CHAPTER 58 Stalin by Action Proves the Two Secret Undertakings

  CHAPTER 59 Secretary Cordell Hull’s Bewilderment

  SECTION XIV

  The March of Conferences

  CHAPTER 60 The Second Quebec Conference: September 11 to September 16, 1944

  CHAPTER 61 The Second Moscow Conference: October 9 to October 20, 1944

  CHAPTER 62 Getting Along with Stalin

  SECTION XV

  The March of Conferences—The Yalta Conference: February 4–11, 1945

  CHAPTER 63 The Conference at Malta—Prelude to Yalta: From January 30 to February 2, 1945

  CHAPTER 64 Organization, the Military Situation, Sources of Information

  CHAPTER 65 The Declarations on Liberated Europe and Poland

  CHAPTER 66 Declarations and Agreements as to Germany

  CHAPTER 67 Sundry Agreements

  CHAPTER 68 The Secret Far Eastern Agreement

  CHAPTER 69 Were These Sacrifices Necessary?

  CHAPTER 70 The Claim That Mr. Roosevelt Signed the Far Eastern Agreement Because of Military Pressures

  CHAPTER 71 Acclaim of the Yalta Agreements

  SECTION XVI

  The Rise, Decline and Fall of the Atlantic Charter

  CHAPTER 72 The Rise

  CHAPTER 73 The Step-by-Step Retreat from the Charter

  SECTION XVII

  The First Days of the Truman Administration

  CHAPTER 74 The United States Has a New President

  CHAPTER 75 Keeping the Secret Far Eastern Agreement a Secret

  CHAPTER 76 I Am Asked for Advice by President Truman

  CHAPTER 77 The Preservation of Lasting Peace

  CHAPTER 78 The Conference to Draw a Charter for the Preservation of Lasting Peace

  SECTION XVIII

  The March of Conferences—The Potsdam Conference and After

  CHAPTER 79 The Awakening of Prime Minister Churchill to the Betrayal of Freedom

  CHAPTER 80 Organization of the Potsdam Conference

  CHAPTER 81 Potsdam Action as to Germany and Poland

  CHAPTER 82 Action as to Japan

  CHAPTER 83 Aftermath of Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan

  CHAPTER 84 An Era of Vacillation in Relations with the Communists

  CHAPTER 85 I Make an Appraisal of Communist Progress as of 1946

  VOLUME III: Case Histories

  SECTION I

  A Step-by-Step History of Poland

  SECTION II

  The Decline and Fall of
Free China—A Case History

  SECTION III

  The Case History of Korea

  SECTION IV

  Vengeance Comes to Germany

  APPENDIX

  Selected Documents Pertaining to Freedom Betrayed

  About the Author and the Editor

  Index

  [Illustrations follow pages 54, 526, and 582]

  EDITOR’S

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  IT IS A PLEASURE TO ACKNOWLEDGE and thank the Herbert Hoover Foundation for its support of the Freedom Betrayed publication project, including grant support to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace for my work as editor. At the Hoover Institution itself, where the bulk of Hoover’s Magnum Opus files now reside, the director, John Raisian, and his colleagues Stephen Langlois and Richard Sousa have been unfailingly supportive. At the Hoover Institution Archives, where I spent part of the summer of 2009 as a visiting fellow, I benefited greatly from the expertise and unstinting helpfulness of Linda Bernard and her colleagues, particularly Lyalya Kharitonova, Carol Leadenham, and Nicholas Siekerski—assistance that continued, via telephone and e-mail, until this undertaking was completed. During my weeks in residence at the Hoover Institution, Deborah Ventura and Celeste Szeto efficiently handled the paperwork and arranged for my use of the academic resources of Stanford University.

  Although Charles Palm is now retired as director of the Hoover Institution Archives, he and his wife, Miriam, continue to live nearby and to welcome this traveling scholar whenever I visit the neighborhood. I am grateful to Charles for generously sharing his large store of knowledge about Herbert Hoover and for facilitating my work on this project in many ways.

  At the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa, where a small but valuable cache of Magnum Opus–related material is held, the director, Timothy Walch, and his team have also been enthusiastically supportive. My thanks go particularly to Matt Schaefer for his informative and rapid responses to many queries, and to his colleagues Jim Detlefsen, Spencer Howard, Lynn Smith, and Craig Wright for their help as well. I much appreciate also the information provided by two of the library’s interns: Wesley Beck and Mary Kate Schroeder.

  My thanks to Bob Clark and Alycia Vivona for locating an interesting document for me at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and to Sam Rushay for similar services at the Harry S. Truman Library.