Two Peacemakers in Paris: The Hoover-Wilson Post-Armistice Letters, 1918-1920

This volume contains all the letters that passed between President Woodrow Wilson and his close confidant and adviser Herbert Hoover while the two were participating in the Paris Peace Conference after the First World War. Wilson headed the American delegation at that conference, and Hoover was Director General for Relief and Reconstruction of Europe. Their correspondence deals with some of the most important events of modern times; it also shows how policies are formed, how things are done in crises, and how men manipulate events and each other to attain great ends. The letters reveal Hoover's anxiety over the efforts of Communists to seize prostrate Austria, Germany, and Hungary, and they provide details of the abortive attempt by Hoover and Wilson to stop the civil war in Russia and to provide food for that starving nation. Wilson disagreed with Hoover's sharp criticism of the Versailles Treaty. Earlier they had been as one in their objection to the British and French food blockade and to Clemenceau's censorship of the Paris press, his intrigues to block the Russian food mission, and his attempts to dismember Germany. The book presents fresh insights into Hoover's views of the League of Nations and international cooperation in general. Professor O'Brien's introduction details the organization and procedure of the peace conference and underscores the herculean tasks of Wilson and Hoover as they confronted the complex problems of peacemaking. Short commentaries before individual letters clarify the particular problems under discussion.