April 25, 1919 – Herbert Hoover Explains the Importance of Feeding Europe to Defeat Anarchy (i.e., Bolshevism)

As the Hoover Institution points out, when the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, Herbert Hoover was named food administrator under President Woodrow Wilson:

His assignment was to enlarge the food supply of the United States and the Allies. This meant boosting food production and also promoting food conservation. ‘Food Will Win the War’ was Hoover’s slogan. This was the moment when Hoover became a household name in America: To ‘Hooverize’ entered the vocabulary as a synonym for economize.”

At the conclusion of the war, Hoover was named principal executive of the Allied Supreme Economic Council. In the first nine months after the Armistice, Hoover organized the distribution of more than $1 billion in food relief for Europe. After the Treaty of Versailles came into effect, Hoover created a private agency to continue the relief work, delivering food and money for economic reconstruction to 21 countries for the next two years.

Herbert Hoover (right) poses in a publicity photo for postwar European relief in 1919.
National Archives & Records Admin

Part of Hoover’s motivation was “to stem the tide of Bolshevism.” On this day in history, Hoover wrote:

Of course, the prime objective of the United States in undertaking the fight against famine in Europe is to save the lives of starving people. The secondary object, however, and of hardly less importance, [is] to defeat Anarchy, which is the handmaiden of Hunger.”