Word: hull
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...CORDELL HULL, by Julius W. Pratt. Though he was F.D.R.'s Secretary of State for nearly twelve years, Hull learned curiously little about either statesmanship or psychology. Pratt's is a straightforward biography that shies away from judgments...
...matter of months, Hull learned the major fact of his new job: Roosevelt intended to be his own Secretary of State. The lesson came when Hull went to the much-vaunted World Economic Conference in London in 1933 with the hope of increasing international trade by stabilizing the world's wildly fluctuating exchange rates. Roosevelt was experimenting with inflation as a cure for the U.S. Depression and did not want to peg the dollar. He torpedoed the conference (and Hull) with a disdainful note saying the U.S. would not cooperate...
...Hull had the confidence of his old colleagues in Congress, and in 1934 he persuaded Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Act, allowing the President to negotiate tariff cuts with other countries without having to go to Congress for authorization...
...Good Neighbors. Hull worked hard to promote the Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America, but had a harder time persuading Nazi Germany to be a good neighbor. If Roosevelt was cautious in speaking out against Hitler for fear of antagonizing the isolationists, Hull was even more timid. He objected to Roosevelt's provocative speeches, argued down such formidable Cabinet colleagues as Henry Stimson and Frank Knox, who were urging direct action against Germany. In 1940 Canada was worried that Germany might invade Greenland and suggested sending some troops there. Hull vetoed the idea as too inflammatory. Soon after, Iceland...
...many ways, the U.S. was lucky to have Hull as Secretary of State in the prewar years. Though a Wilsonian liberal, he had the respect of the nation's conservatives. He helped swing national opinion from isolationism to internationalism. But like his mentor Wilson, he was too didactic, too cocksure of his own principles. By believing that the United Nations would solve all the world's problems and make obsolete the cold realities of Communist hostility, he contributed to the bad peace that followed World...