Hoover: Feeding the Starving Victims of World War I

World War I, which began in 1914 with the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was one of the largest and deadliest conflicts in history. By the time it ended four years later, it had embroiled 14 “Allies,” including the U.S., Great Britain, France and Russia, and four “Central Powers”—primarily Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. Nine million combatants and seven million civilians died in the fighting, which ended with Allied victory.

Many outstanding military leaders and statesmen were involved in the war, including U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who articulated the Allies’ war aims and helped negotiate the ultimate peace treaty. But for millions of Europeans, the iconic hero of the conflict was an American civilian who held no official position and never fired a shot. He was Herbert Hoover, a highly successful American mining engineer and international businessman with a passion for humanitarian work.

An Iowa-born Quaker, Hoover set out to save European lives after the war started and Belgium, which was plundered by the German army, began suffering severe food shortages. Using his prestige and global contacts, Hoover established a Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) and, operating from London, raised enough donations to maintain an $11 million monthly budget.

With $387 million in support from the U.S. government and a nearly matching grant from Britain, Hoover made the CRB an independent entity with its own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads that distributed over two million tons of food to 10 million war victims. By April 1917, when the U.S. formally entered the war, Hoover had earned such reputation that the British government informally offered him British citizenship and an important official position. He answered that he was ready to help, “but I’ll be damned if I’ll give up my American citizenship—not on your life!” 

No longer able to work in the German-occupied Belgium, Hoover returned to the U.S. to take the reins of the U.S. Food Administration, the agency responsible for control of the Allies’ food reserves. But as soon as the fighting ended, he launched a massive effort to save lives in Eastern Europe and Russia, where an estimated 20 million people were dying of famine and diseases caused by malnutrition.

With half of the continent to feed, Hoover organized the efforts of the American Friends Service Committee and other charities to ship millions of tons of donated food to Europe. Loaded on hundreds of freight trains, the vital supplies were sent over the rapidly repaired railroad tracks to cities and towns throughout the war-ravaged regions. In Eastern Europe, these mobile food stores were often greeted with flowers, music, and an outpouring of gratitude. 

In Belgium and Poland, city squares and streets were named after Hoover, and he was showered with honorary university degrees and other high awards. Maxim Gorky, a prominent Russian author, wrote to Hoover: “Your help will enter history as a unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death.”

But Hoover’s greatest honor, which he won in part through his historic relief work, was from his fellow Americans. In 1929, they elected him as the 31st President of the United States.