Cordell Hull A Biography

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Download or read book Cordell Hull written by and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autographed photograph letter America Cordell Hull (born October 2, 1871; died July 23, 1955) was an American politician from Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years (1933 to 1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II. Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations, and was referred to by President Roosevelt as the Father of the United Nations. In 1939, Hull advised President Roosevelt to reject the SS St. Louis carrying 936 Jews seeking asylum. Hull's decision sent the passengers back to Europe on the eve of the Nazi Holocaust. There is some controversy over Hull's role in the affair. The Jews had fled Europe to escape from the Nazis, and after being denied entry into Cuba and the U.S. were granted refuge in the United Kingdom and in continental European nations. Many of the latter group became victims of the Holocaust after the Nazis invaded Western Europe in the following years. In September 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt maneuvered with another State Department official to bypass Hull's refusal to allow Jewish refugees aboard a Portuguese ship, the Quanza, to receive visas to enter the U.S. Through Mrs. Roosevelt's efforts, the Jewish refugees disembarked on September 11, 1940, in Virginia. Hull was responsible for United States foreign relations before and during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He sent the note to Japan prior to the attack, which was formally titled Outline of proposed Basis for Agreement Between The United States and Japan, but had also been part of the United States' attempt to open Chinese markets to U.S. goods against Japanese interests there. On the day of the attack, not long after it had begun, Hull received the news that it was taking place. The Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and Japan's special envoy Saburo Kurusu were waiting to see Hull at that moment. Admiral Edwin T. Layton, at the time chief intelligence officer to the commander of the Pacific Fleet, tells the rest of the story: Roosevelt advised him not to tell them about the raid but 'to receive them formally and coolly bow them out'. After he had glanced at their copy of the fourteen-part message [Japan's declaration that negotiations were at an end], Hull's anger burst forth. 'In all my fifty years of public service, ' he told the astonished diplomats, 'I have never seen such a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehood and distortion.' Nomura and Kurusu, who had not been told of the attack, bowed themselves out in an embarrassed fluster. A department official overheard Hull muttering under his breath as the door closed, 'Scoundrels and piss-ants.' Hull was the underlying force and architect in the creation of the United Nations, as recognized by the 1945 Nobel Prize for Peace, an honor for which Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated him. During World War II, Hull and Roosevelt spent tireless hours working toward the development of a world organization to prevent a third World War. Hull and his staff drafted the Charter of the United Nations in mid-1943.