History UsefulNotes / HerbertHoover

Ironically enough, prior to his presidency Hoover was known as something of a miracle man, especially with his humanitarian aid. Originally a mining engineer, he rose up the corporate ranks at a British mining firm in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Russia}},[[note]]Decades after his work there, [[https://books.google.com/books?id=hAwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false the CIA used his personal maps and records of the Kyshtym area to pinpoint a major Soviet plutonium plant.]][[/note]] and UsefulNotes/{{China}}. While in the latter country -- inspired in part by his Quaker faith -- he began to take up humanitarian causes, trying to improve the lot of his workers and the Chinese in general. (He and his wife Lou Henry also learned some Mandarin; they would later [[HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier use it to keep from being spied on in]] TheWhiteHouse.) He eventually started his own mining consulting firm; by his 40th birthday in 1914, Hoover had investments in every continent but Antarctica, offices in six cities around the world, and a personal fortune of $4 million (that's about $97 million in 2016 dollars). At the same time, he lectured and wrote about mining and--with Lou Henry (a noted Latinist and geologist in her own right)--translated and annotated the [[{{Doorstopper}} massive]] 16th-century mining guide ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_re_metallica De re metallica]]'' from Latin (the first time ever into English and still highly regarded; it remains in print as the authoritative English translation, and influenced translations into other languages).

During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he led an American program to distribute food to needy people, first and foremost those living in those allied to America. And his humanitarianism was such that it was reported a letter addressed to "Miracle Man, Washington DC" was delivered straight to him. He served as Secretary of Commerce under UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, further increasing his popularity with the public. Due to the economic prosperity of the time, he won the election of 1928 rather easily. He's the last person to be elected President after having been a Cabinet member, and one of only three men to ascend to the White House without having either been a general or ever gotten elected to public office before (the other two being UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump).[[note]]UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower hadn't been elected to anything before, either, but they were famous generals, rather than civil servants like Taft or Hoover.[[/note]] By the way, Hoover's equivalent [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} up north]] was Richard B. Bennett, another one-term head of government who also has the misfortune of being known mainly for his lack of success in fighting the Great Depression.

During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he led an American program to distribute food to needy people, first and foremost those living in those allied to America. And his humanitarianism was such that it was reported a letter addressed to "Miracle Man, Washington DC" was delivered straight to him. He served as the Secretary of Commerce under UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, further increasing his popularity with the public. Due to the economic prosperity of the time, he won the election of 1928 rather easily. He's the last person to be elected President after having been a Cabinet member, and one of only three men to ascend to the White House without having either been a general or ever gotten elected to public office before (the other two being UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump[[note]]UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower hadn't been elected to anything before, either, but they were famous generals, rather than civil servants like Taft or Hoover.[[/note]]). By the way, his equivalent [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} up north]] was Richard B. Bennett, another one-term head of government who also has the misfortune of being known mainly for his lack of success in fighting the Great Depression.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States--serving from [[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]] to [[TheGreatDepression 1933]], between UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt--and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but--contrary to widespread sentiment at the time--[[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States ([[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]]–33), serving between UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but -- contrary to widespread sentiment at the time -- [[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/herbert_c_hoover.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300: ''"What this country needs is [[HeadInTheSandManagement a great poem]]."'']]

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States ([[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]]–33), serving between UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but -- contrary to widespread sentiment at the time -- [[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he led an American program to distribute food to needy people, first and foremost those living in those allied to America. And his humanitarianism was such that it was reported a letter addressed to "Miracle Man, Washington DC" was delivered straight to him. He served as the Secretary of Commerce under UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, further increasing his popularity with the public. Due to the economic prosperity of the time, he won the election of 1928 rather easily. He's the last person to be elected President after having been a Cabinet member, and one of only three men to ascend to the White House without having either been a general or ever gotten elected to public office before (the other two being UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump[[note]]UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower hadn't been elected to anything before, either, but they were famous generals, rather than civil servants like Taft or Hoover.[[/note]]). By the way, his equivalent [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} up north]] was Richard B. Bennett, another one-term head of government who also has the misfortune of being known mainly for his lack of success in fighting the Great Depression.

During the Depression, his public image went very far south, very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920s turn into the worst economic crisis in world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once-prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered -- over twenty-five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was the most prominent and easiest target available. The actions pursued by the administration usually made it ''even worse'': for example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve, which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy while inadvertently leading it to do everything it could to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- empty turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", rabbit or squirrel meat was "Hoover steak", newspapers used by the homeless to keep warm were "Hoover blankets", cardboard inserts to replace worn-out shoe soles were "Hoover leather", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when a "Bonus Army" of 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding that their military bonus certificates be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the regular Army to clear them out forcefully. [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used tanks, bayonets, and tear gas to expel the marchers, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]] Hoover had been a humanitarian, sure, but he was also a SelfMadeMan who was less than thrilled about giving public handouts.

He lived a very long time; Hoover was the first former president since UsefulNotes/JohnAdams to live to 90 years and had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter (who, coincidentally, is also far more acclaimed for what he did outside the Oval Office rather than in it). Additionally, he didn't just outlive [[UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft his two]] [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge predecessors]] alive at the time of his inauguration; he also outlived [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt two of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy his successors]], dying nearly 32 years after his term was over in late 1964.[[note]]Conspiracy theorists who whisper about the Presidential Guard rehearsing a funeral just before Kennedy's assassination forget, or in some cases omit, that the Guard was actually rehearsing for Hoover, whose death had been expected. As it turned out, he held on for a year.[[/note]] With Roosevelt and Kennedy having died in office, Hoover’s death was also the first death of a former president since Coolidge’s all the way back in 1933.[[note]]He's also the most recent ex-president who died during a campaign period. Out of respect, then-President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and his challenger UsefulNotes/BarryGoldwater suspended their campaigns for a week.[[/note]] And he lived through three of the four presidential assassinations (in addition to Kennedy, he was also alive when UsefulNotes/JamesGarfield and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley met their respective ends, and indeed was born only nine years after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated).

He's also the only president born in and native to Iowa, although when elected he legally resided in UsefulNotes/{{California}} (making him the first of three Californian presidents, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon--a Southern California boy born and raised, and incidentally also the only other president to have been a Quaker--and the Illinois-born UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan being the other two; and of the three, he is the only one whose connections were to Northern California--his mining firm's offices were in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco). Either way, he was the first president born in and elected from a state west of the Mississippi River. Also, "The Star-Spangled Banner" officially became the country's national anthem, and the Empire State Building was completed, both in 1931. Alongside Coolidge, he is one of only two presidents sworn in by a former president.[[note]]UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft, who was president from 1909 to 1913, served as chief justice of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1930, in which capacity he swore Coolidge at his second inauguration in 1925 and Hoover at his own inauguration in 1929.[[/note]]

During the Depression, his public image went very far south, very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920s turn into the worst economic crisis in world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once-prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered -- over twenty-five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was the most prominent and easiest target available. The actions pursued by the administration usually made it ''even worse'': for example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve, which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy while inadvertently leading it to do everything it could to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- empty turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", rabbit or squirrel meat was "Hoover steak", newspapers used by the homeless to keep warm were "Hoover blankets", cardboard inserts to replace worn-out shoe soles were "Hoover leather", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding their pensions to be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the army to clear them out forcefully. Instead, [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used weapons and tear gas to force them to leave, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]] Hoover had been a humanitarian, sure, but he was also a SelfMadeMan who was less than thrilled about giving public handouts.

During the Depression, his public image went very far south, very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920s turn into the worst economic crisis in world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once-prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered -- over twenty-five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was the most prominent and easiest target available. The actions pursued by the administration usually made it ''even worse'': for example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve, which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy and everything it could have done to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- empty turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", rabbit or squirrel meat was "Hoover steak", newspapers used by the homeless to keep warm were "Hoover blankets", cardboard inserts to replace worn-out shoe soles were "Hoover leather", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding their pensions to be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the army to clear them out forcefully. Instead, [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used weapons and tear gas to force them to leave, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]] Hoover had been a humanitarian, sure, but he was also a SelfMadeMan who was less than thrilled about giving public handouts.

During the Depression, his public image went very far south, very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920s turn into the worst economic crisis in world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once-prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered -- over twenty-five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was the most prominent and easiest target available. The actions pursued by the administration usually made it ''even worse'': for example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy and everything it could have done to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- empty turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", rabbit or squirrel meat was "Hoover steak", newspapers used by the homeless to keep warm were "Hoover blankets", cardboard inserts to replace worn-out shoe soles were "Hoover leather", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding their pensions to be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the army to clear them out forcefully. Instead, [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used weapons and tear gas to force them to leave, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]] Hoover had been a humanitarian, sure, but he was also a SelfMadeMan who was less than thrilled about giving public handouts.

During the Depression, his public image went very far south, very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920s turn into the worst economic crisis in world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once-prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered -- over twenty-five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was the most prominent and easiest target available. The actions pursued by the administration usually made it ''even worse'': for example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy and everything it could have done to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding their pensions to be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the army to clear them out forcefully. Instead, [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used weapons and tear gas to force them to leave, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]] Hoover had been a humanitarian, sure, but he was also a SelfMadeMan who was less than thrilled about giving public handouts.

* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' famously references him in their ThemeSong.

After his presidency, Hoover rehabilitated his reputation through further charity work (both in poor Third World countries and in UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), his work with the Boy Scouts of America, and by publicly denouncing the draconian Morgenthau Plan.[[note]]It was proposed by and named for Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., who aimed to prevent future German aggression by [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown destroying Germany's industrial capacity]].[[/note]] He also worked with two of his successors, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, as leader of a board that advised the president on how to make the federal government more efficient. By the time of his death he was again one of the most admired men in America, but [[AccentuateTheNegative few seem to know or remember this today]].

He lived a very long time; Hoover was the first former president since UsefulNotes/JohnAdams to live to 90 years and had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter (who, coincidentally, is also far more acclaimed for what he did outside the Oval Office rather than in it). Additionally, he didn't just outlive [[UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft his two]] [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge predecessors]] alive at the time of his inauguration; he also outlived [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt two of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy his successors]], dying nearly 32 years after his term was over in late 1964.[[note]]Conspiracy theorists who whisper about the Presidential Guard rehearsing a funeral just before Kennedy's assassination forget, or in some cases omit, that the Guard was actually rehearsing for Hoover, whose death had been expected. As it turned out, he held on for a year.[[/note]] With Roosevelt and Kennedy having died in office, Hoover’s death was also the first death of a former president since Coolidge’s all the way back in 1933.[[note]]He's also the most recent ex-president who died during a campaign period. Out of respect, then-President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and his challenger UsefulNotes/BarryGoldwater suspended their campaigns for a week.[[/note]] And he lived through three of the four presidential assassinations (in addition to Kennedy, he was also alive when UsefulNotes/JamesGarfield and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley met their respective ends).

During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he led an American program to distribute food to needy people, first and foremost those living in those allied to America. And his humanitarianism was such that it was reported a letter addressed to "Miracle Man, Washington DC" was delivered straight to him. He served as the Secretary of Commerce under UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, further increasing his popularity with the public. Due to the economic prosperity of the time, he won the election of 1928 rather easily. He's the last person to be elected President after having been a Cabinet member, and one of only three men to ascend to the White House without having either been a general or ever gotten elected to public office before (the other two being UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump[[note]]UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower hadn't been elected to anything before, either, but they were famous generals, rather than civil servants like Taft or Hoover.[[/note]]). By the way, his equivalent [[CanadaEh up north]] was Richard B. Bennett, another one-term head of government who also has the misfortune of being known mainly for his lack of success in fighting the Great Depression.

He lived a very long time; Hoover was the first former president since UsefulNotes/JohnAdams to live to 90 years and had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter (who, coincidentally, is also far more acclaimed for his non-presidential career than for his time in the Oval Office). Additionally, he didn't just outlive [[UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft his two]] [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge predecessors]] alive at the time of his inauguration; he also outlived [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt two of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy his successors]], dying nearly 32 years after his term was over in late 1964.[[note]]Conspiracy theorists who whisper about the Presidential Guard rehearsing a funeral just before Kennedy's assassination forget, or in some cases omit, that the Guard was actually rehearsing for Hoover, whose death had been expected. As it turned out, he held on for a year.[[/note]] With Roosevelt and Kennedy having died in office, Hoover’s death was also the first death of a former president since Coolidge’s all the way back in 1933.[[note]]He's also the most recent ex-president who died during a campaign period. Out of respect, then-President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and his challenger UsefulNotes/BarryGoldwater suspended their campaigns for a week.[[/note]] And he lived through three of the four presidential assassinations (in addition to Kennedy, he was also alive when UsefulNotes/JamesGarfield and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley met their respective ends).

Just before the election of 1928, Hoover was in charge of recovery efforts after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. More humanitarian laurels, but he also struck an unfortunate deal with African-American leaders where he promised to champion Black causes during his upcoming presidential run and expected presidency in exchange for patience with the (lack of) assistance going to Black flood victims. Hoover never delivered on his promise; this, combined with clever Democratic position and maneuvering, is how the Party of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]] lost the Black vote. To be fair to him, he had the whole Depression thing to deal with while he was in office, and that was kind of a big deal.

He's also the only president born in and native to Iowa, although when elected he legally resided in California (making him the first of three Californian presidents, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon--a Southern California boy born and raised, and incidentally also the only other president to have been a Quaker--and the Illinois-born UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan being the other two; and of the three, he is the only one whose connections were to Northern California—his mining firm's offices were in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco). Either way, he was the first president born in and elected from a state west of the Mississippi River. Also, "The Star-Spangled Banner" officially became the country's national anthem, and the Empire State Building was completed, both in 1931.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States ([[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]]–33), serving between UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but -- contrary to widespread sentiment at the time -- [[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/herbert_c_hoover.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320: ''"What this country needs is [[HeadInTheSandManagement a great poem]]."'']]

'''Herbert Clark Hoover''' (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States ([[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]]–33), serving between UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but -- contrary to widespread sentiment at the time -- [[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

Ironically enough, prior to his presidency Hoover was known as something of a miracle man, especially with his humanitarian aid. Originally a mining engineer, he rose up the corporate ranks at a British mining firm in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Russia}},[[note]]Decades after his work there, [[https://books.google.com/books?id=hAwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false the CIA used his personal maps and records of the Kyshtym area to pinpoint a major Soviet plutonium plant.]][[/note]] and UsefulNotes/{{China}}. While in the latter country -- inspired in part by his Quaker faith -- he began to take up humanitarian causes, trying to improve the lot of his workers and the Chinese in general. (He and his wife Lou Henry also learned Mandarin; they would later [[HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier use it to keep from being spied on in]] TheWhiteHouse.) He eventually started his own mining consulting firm; by his 40th birthday in 1914, Hoover had investments in every continent but Antarctica, offices in six cities around the world, and a personal fortune of $4 million (that's about $97 million in 2016 dollars). At the same time, he lectured and wrote about mining and--with Lou Henry (a noted Latinist and geologist in her own right)--translated and annotated the [[{{Doorstopper}} massive]] 16th-century mining guide ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_re_metallica De re metallica]]'' from Latin (the first time ever into English and still highly regarded; it remains in print as the authoritative English translation, and influenced translations into other languages).

During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he led an American program to distribute food to needy people, first and foremost those living in those allied to America. And his humanitarianism was such that it was reported a letter addressed to "Miracle Man, Washington DC" was delivered straight to him. He served as the Secretary of Commerce under UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, further increasing his popularity with the public. Due to the economic prosperity of the time, he won the election of 1928 rather easily. He's the last person to be elected President after having been a Cabinet member, and one of only three men to ascend to the White House without having either been a general or ever gotten elected to public office before (the other two being UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump[[note]]UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower hadn't been elected to anything before, either, but they were famous generals, rather than civil servants like Taft or Hoover.[[/note]]). By the way, his equivalent [[CanadaEh up north]] was Richard B. Bennett, another one-term head of government who is also known for his lack of success in fighting the Great Depression.

During the Depression, his public name changed very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920s turn into the worst economic crisis in world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once-prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered -- over twenty-five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was it. The actions pursued by the administration usually made it ''even worse'': for example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy and everything it could have done to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding their pensions to be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the army to clear them out forcefully. Instead, [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used weapons and tear gas to force them to leave, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]] Hoover had been a humanitarian, sure, but he was also a SelfMadeMan who was less than thrilled about giving public handouts.

With no end to the Depression in sight, Hoover and the Republicans [[LandslideElection easily lost]] the election of 1932 to UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt and the Democrats. However, towards the end of his term, Hoover switched positions and admitted that the economy genuinely needed the government's help. Some of the actions that he then took, such as increased corporate taxes and public works projects (most famously the Boulder Dam near UsefulNotes/LasVegas, which is now called, fittingly enough, the Hoover Dam), served as the blueprint for Franklin D. Roosevelt's (comparatively) successful New Deal, though Hoover felt that Roosevelt went too far in that direction.[[note]]For what it's worth, the Supreme Court agreed to some extent, striking down some of the New Deal provisions as unconstitutional.[[/note]] Additionally, Hoover's treatment of Latin American nations during his presidency was an important influence on Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor" policy towards America's southern neighbors during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It was Hoover who finally withdrew American troops from UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} and UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}} after years of occupation. Hoover's nomination of Charles Evans Hughes as [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts Chief Justice of the Supreme Court]] caused FDR some trouble for the rest of the 1930s because he usually opposed the most ambitious New Deal proposals.

After his presidency, Hoover rehabilitated his reputation through further charity work (both in poor Third World countries and in UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), his work with the Boy Scouts of America, and by publicly denouncing the draconian Morgenthau Plan.[[note]]It was proposed by and named for Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., who aimed to prevent future German aggression by [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown destroying Germany's industrial capacity]].[[/note]] He also worked with two of his successors, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, as leader of a board that advised the president on how to make the federal government more efficient. By the time of his death he was once again one of the most admired men in America, but [[AccentuateTheNegative few seem to remember this today]].

He lived a very long time; Hoover was the first former president since UsefulNotes/JohnAdams to live to 90 years and had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter (who, coincidentally, is also far more acclaimed for his non-presidential career than for his time in the Oval Office). Additionally, he didn't just outlive [[UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft his two]] [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge predecessors]] alive at the time of his inauguration; he also outlived [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt two of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy his successors]], dying nearly 32 years after his term was over in late 1964.[[note]]Conspiracy theorists who whisper about the Presidential Guard rehearsing a funeral just before Kennedy's assassination forget that the Guard was actually rehearsing for Hoover, whose death had been expected. As it turned out he held on for a year.[[/note]] With Roosevelt and Kennedy having died in office, Hoover’s death was also the first death of a former president since Coolidge’s all the way back in 1933.[[note]]He's also the most recent ex-president who died during a campaign period. Out of respect, both UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and Barry Goldwater suspended their campaigns for a week.[[/note]] And he lived through three of the four presidential assassinations (in addition to Kennedy, he was also alive when UsefulNotes/JamesGarfield and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley met their respective ends).

Just before the election of 1928, Hoover was in charge of recovery efforts after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. More humanitarian laurels, but he also struck an unfortunate deal with African-American leaders where he promised to champion black causes during his upcoming presidential run and expected presidency in exchange for patience with the (lack of) assistance going to black flood victims. Hoover never delivered on his promise; this, combined with clever Democratic position and maneuvering, is how the Party of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]] lost the black vote. To be fair to him, he had the whole Depression thing to deal with while he was in office, and that was kind of a big deal.

The naming of Hoover Dam was originally rather controversial, as it was his own Interior Secretary, Ray Wilbur, who first coined the name in 1930. Wilbur justified his decision by citing other such public works named for presidents, but none had been named for a ''sitting'' president, much less one whose popularity was in steep decline. Despite efforts by the FDR administration to have Boulder Dam be its official name, "Hoover Dam" had gained enough popular usage that both names were used interchangeably. It wasn't until 1947 that Hoover Dam became its official, legal name; by then, Hoover's image was sufficiently rehabilitated (and he was long removed from his term of office) for the name to be well-received.

His Vice President Charles Curtis was close to half Native American,[[labelnote:*]]3/8 to be specific[[/labelnote]] specifically the Kaw Nation, and was the first non-white person to hold the position, a distinction he held alone for nearly a century until the half-Black, half-South Asian UsefulNotes/KamalaHarris took it under UsefulNotes/JoeBiden.

[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/herbert_c_hoover.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:305: ''"What this country needs is [[HeadInTheSandManagement a great poem]]."'']]

His Vice President Charles Curtis was close to half Native American, specifically the Kaw Nation, and was the first non-white person to hold the position, a distinction he held alone for nearly a century until UsefulNotes/KamalaHarris took it under UsefulNotes/JoeBiden.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/herbert_c_hoover.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300: ''"What this country needs is [[HeadInTheSandManagement a great poem]]."'']]

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States ([[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]]–33), serving between UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but -- contrary to widespread sentiment at the time -- [[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

* In the ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'' AlternateHistory mods for the ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' series, Herbert Hoover ihas been reelected in 1932 and is the leader of USA when the game starts (1 January 1936).

His Vice President Charles Curtis was close to half Native American, specifically the Kaw Nation, and was the first non-white person to hold the position, a distinction he held alone for nearly a century until Kamala Harris took it under UsefulNotes/JoeBiden.

And in case you were wondering, no, he and longtime FBI head J. Edgar Hoover were not related in any way.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States ([[TheRoaringTwenties 1929]]–33), after UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge and before [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]], and the twelfth from the Republican Party. A [[NiceGuy good person]] who got caught in an unworkable situation, he had TheGreatDepression begin during his watch, but-- contrary to widespread sentiment at the time -- [[MisBlamed he didn't cause it]].

Ironically enough, prior to his Presidency Hoover was known as something of a miracle man, especially with his humanitarian aid. Originally a mining engineer, he rose up the corporate ranks at a British mining firm in Australia, Russia[[note]]Decades after his work there, [[https://books.google.com/books?id=hAwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false the CIA used his personal maps and records of the Kyshtym area to pinpoint a major Soviet plutonium plant]][[/note]], and China. While in the latter country -- inspired in part by his Quaker faith -- he began to take up humanitarian causes, trying to improve the lot of his workers and the Chinese in general. (He and his wife Lou Henry also learned Mandarin; they would later use it to keep from being spied on in the White House.) He eventually started his own mining consulting firm; by his 40th birthday in 1914, Hoover had investments in every continent but Antarctica, offices in six cities around the world, and a personal fortune of $4 million (that's about $97 million in 2016 dollars). At the same time, he lectured and wrote about mining and--with Lou Henry (a noted Latinist and geologist in her own right)--translated and annotated the massive 16th-century mining guide ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_re_metallica De re metallica]]'' from Latin (the first time ever into English and still highly regarded; it remains in print as the authoritative English translation, and influenced translations into other languages).

He served during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI to help make sure the United States was able to send food to where it was needed, such as America's war allies. And his humanitarianism was such that it was reported a letter addressed to 'Miracle Man, Washington DC' was delivered straight to him. He served as the Secretary of Commerce under UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, further increasing his popularity with the public. Due to the economic prosperity of the time, he won the election of 1928 rather easily. He's the last person to be elected President after having been a Cabinet member, and one of only three men to ascend to the White House without having either been a general or ever gotten elected to public office before (the other two being UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump[[note]]UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, and UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower hadn't been elected to anything before, either, but they were famous generals, rather than civil servants like Taft or Hoover[[/note]]). By the way, his equivalent [[CanadaEh up north]] was R. B. Bennett, who is equally known for his incompetence in his dealings with the Great Depression.

During the Depression, though, all of this changed very quickly. Starting with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the American economy chaotically saw the prosperity of the 1920's turn into the worst economic crisis in all of world history. From beginning to end, Hoover's presidency saw unemployment rise to an astounding 25% of the workforce, over 60% of the population falling into poverty, the once prosperous farms of the Great Plains becoming the desert of the Dust Bowl, and the Dow Jones losing over 88% of its value in four years.[[note]]This crash was so bad that it wasn't until 1955 that the stock market fully recovered - over twenty five years later![[/note]] America needed to blame somebody, and he was it. The actions pursued by the Hoover administration usually made it ''even worse'', like the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a 60% tariff tax that was meant to protect American businesses from foreign competition, only caused a trade war as other countries raised their tariffs in response, crippling international trade and deepening the economic crisis. In fact, ''over 1,000'' economists signed a petition begging Hoover not to sign the tariff bill. There was also some spectacular mishandling of the Federal Reserve which prevented it from doing pretty much anything it could have done to help the economy and everything it could have done to worsen it. Damn near every major sign of poverty a person could have around them was branded [[NeverLiveItDown irrevocably]] with Hoover's name -- turned-out pockets were "Hoover flags", and shanty towns set up for the influx of homeless (like a well-known example in Central Park in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) were called "Hoovervilles." Most infamously, when 20,000 UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veterans marched on Washington demanding their pensions to be paid out early, since they couldn't get work, Hoover sent General UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and the army to forcefully clear them out. Instead, [=MacArthur=] went further than planned and used weapons and tear gas to force them to leave, outraging the public.[[note]]Famously, then-candidate UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt sent his wife, Eleanor, with food and charitable goods, drawing a very clear line between the two men in the public's mind.[[/note]]

With no end to the Depression in sight, Hoover and the Republicans [[LandslideElection easily lost]] the election of 1932 to UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt and the Democrats. However, towards the end of his term, Hoover switched positions and admitted that the economy genuinely needed the government's help. Some of the actions that he then took, such as increased corporate taxes and public works projects (most famously the Boulder Dam near UsefulNotes/LasVegas, which is now called, fittingly enough, the Hoover Dam), served as the blueprint for UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt's (comparatively) successful New Deal, though Hoover felt that Roosevelt went too far in that direction[[note]]For what it's worth, the Supreme Court agreed to some extent, striking down some of the New Deal provisions as unconstitutional[[/note]]. Additionally, Hoover's treatment of Latin American nations during his presidency was an important influence on Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor" policy towards America's southern neighbors during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It was Hoover who finally withdrew American troops from Haiti and Nicaragua after years of occupation. Hoover's nomination of Chalres Evan Hughes as [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts Chief Justice of the Supreme Court]] caused FDR some trouble for the rest of the 1930's because he usually opposed the more extreme New Deal legislation.

After his presidency, Hoover rehabilitated this reputation through further charity work (both in poor Third World countries and in Germany after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), his work with the Boy Scouts of America, and by publicly denouncing the draconian Morgenthau Plan.[[note]]A proposal by the Secretary of the Treasury to prevent future German aggression by [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown destroying Germany's industrial capacity]].[[/note]] He also worked with two of his successors, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, as leader of a board that advised the president on how to make the federal government more efficient. By the time of his death he was once again one of the most admired men in America, but [[AccentuateTheNegative nobody seems to remember this today]].

He lived a very long time; Hoover had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter (who, coincidentally, is also far more acclaimed for his non-presidential career than for his time in the Oval Office). Additionally, he didn't just outlive [[UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft his two]] [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge predecessors]] alive at the time of his inauguration; he also outlived [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt two of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy his successors]], dying 32 years after his term was over in late 1964. (Conspiracy theorists who whisper about the Presidential Guard rehearsing a funeral just before Kennedy's assassination forget that the Guard was actually rehearsing for Hoover, whose death had been expected. As it turned out he held on for a year.) With Roosevelt and Kennedy having died in their Presidencies, Hoover’s death was also the first death of a former President since Coolidge’s all the way back in 1932. And he lived through three of the four Presidential assassinations (in addition to Kennedy, he was also alive when UsefulNotes/JamesGarfield and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley met their ends).

Just before the election of 1928, Hoover was in charge of recovery efforts after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. More humanitarian laurels, but he also struck an unfortunate deal with African-American leaders where he promised to champion black causes during his upcoming presidential run in exchange for patience with the (lack of) assistance going to black flood victims. Hoover never delivered on his promise; this, combined with clever Democratic position and maneuvering, is how the Party of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]] lost the black vote. To be fair to him, he had the whole Depression thing to deal with while he was in office, and that was kind of a big deal.

The naming of Hoover Dam was originally rather controversial, as it was his own Secretary of the Interior, Ray Wilbur, who first coined the name in 1930. Wilbur justified his decision by citing other such public works named for presidents, but none had been named for a ''sitting'' president, much less one whose popularity was in steep decline. Despite efforts by the [=FDR=] administration to have Boulder Dam be its official name, "Hoover Dam" had gained enough popular usage that both names were used interchangeably. It wasn't until 1947 that Hoover Dam became its official, legal name; by then, Hoover's image was sufficiently rehabilitated (and he was long removed from his term of office) for the name to be well-received.

He's also the only president born in and native to Iowa, although when elected he legally resided in California (making him the first of three Californian Presidents, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon--a Southern California boy born and raised, and incidentally also the only other President to have been a Quaker--and UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan[[note]]Born in Illinois[[/note]] being the other two; of the three, he is the only one whose connections were to Northern California—his mining firm's offices were in San Francisco). Either way, he was the first president born in and elected from a state west of the Mississippi River. Also, "The Star-Spangled Banner" officially became the country's national anthem during his term, and the Empire State Building was completed in 1931.

-> (Oh yeah; that IronicEcho you're probably equating with president UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter?)

* His portrait can briefly be seen in the background of the scene in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' where the townspeople run on protagonist George Bailey's building and loan. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance.

* In the ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'' AlternateHistory mods for the ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' series, Herbert Hoover ihas been reelected in 1932 and is the leader of USA when the game starts (1st January 1936).

After his presidency, Hoover rehabilitated this reputation through further charity work (both in poor Third World countries and in Germany after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), his work with the Boy Scouts of America, and by publicly denouncing the draconian Morgenthau Plan. He also worked with two of his successors, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, as leader of a board that advised the president on how to make the federal government more efficient. By the time of his death he was once again one of the most admired men in America, but [[AccentuateTheNegative nobody seems to remember this today]].

After his presidency, Hoover rehabilitated this reputation through further charity work (both in poor Third World countries and in Germany after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), his work with the Boy Scouts of America, and by publicly denouncing the draconian Morgenthau Plan. He also worked with two of his successors, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, as leader of a board that advised the president on how to make the federal government more efficient. By the time of his death he was once again one of the most admired men in America, but [[AccentuateTheNegative nobody seems to remember this today]]. He lived a very long time; Hoover had the longest retirement of any former president until he was surpassed in 2012 by UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter (who, coincidentally, is also far more acclaimed for his non-presidential career than for his time in the Oval Office). Additionally, he didn't just outlive [[UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft his two]] [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge predecessors]] alive at the time of his inauguration; he also outlived [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt two of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy his successors]], dying 32 years after his term was over in late 1964. (Conspiracy theorists who whisper about the Presidential Guard rehearsing a funeral just before Kennedy's assassination forget that the Guard was actually rehearsing for Hoover, whose death had been expected. As it turned out he held on for a year.)