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Born: August 10, 1874 Died: October 20, 1964 Political Party: Republican Terms in Office: March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1933 Vice President: Charles Curtis
 * Herbert Clark Hoover **

After analyzing Herbert Hoover’s term as president I believe that he deserves the grade of a C- for his term as president. Hoover limited his involvement in Congress and instead let Congress legislate, and despite his efforts in trying to regulate banks and “margin buying” the stock market still violently crashed during his term. Despite Hoover’s efforts to raise tariffs to boost the American economy this consequently affected our relationships abroad. Despite these downturns during Hoover’s term as president he did create the “Good Neighbor Policy” which is considered to be the only good decision that he made during his presidency. Hoover was also very involved, he toured his country and foreign country’s so he could experience first-hand what the people were going through, he was one of the only presidents to do this, which is why I give Herbert Hoover the grade of a C- for his term as president.

Hoover’s goals as president were to set aside money for national park land, reform prisons, and to provide better education on American Indian reservations. But, after the stock market crashed just eight months into his presidency Hoover’s goals changed. His goals were to stimulate the economy with reduction taxes and to establish a plan for the Federal Reserve Board to tighten the money supply to halt speculative loans. During Hoover’s first eight months as president he did a good job on establishing national parks to help reserve some of the country’s natural beauty and he also provided money to help better education on American Indian reservations. But, after the Depression hit and his new goals established, Hoover did not do a good job at reaching his goals. By the end of Hoover’s term as president the economy had still not been stimulated and the Depression had become even more depressing.

Hoover limited his relationship with Congress as much as possible and just let Congress legislate. In both tariff and agricultural debates it is quite obvious that Hoover limited his involvement. Hoover’s House of Representatives largely gave consent to his request for high tariffs but senators from eastern states passed a tariff bill that raised rates on industrial and manufactured goods. Instead of trying to convince Congress that his proposals were sound he instead chose to limit his involvement. In result, Hoover’s policy came to a standstill and tension rose between himself and the Republicans who might have been among Hoover’s strong supporters.

The best decision that Hoover made during his presidency was the “Good Neighbor Policy” toward the nations of South and Central America. Hoover set out on a ten-week tour of Latin America in which he gave twenty-five speeches all of which he stressed his plans to reduce American political and military involvement in Latin American Affairs. In these speeches he also pledged that the United States would act as a “good neighbor” to Latin America. Even better, Hoover acted on his word and removed troops from Nicaragua. He also reconciled differences between Chili, Peru, and Bolivia. Hoover’s “Good Neighbor Policy” established a foundation on which future presidents could build upon. Although the Great Depression cannot be fully blamed on Hoover a lot of the causes for it can be. The Great Depression was not a complete surprise, the economy slowly started to descend. Hoover did not do much to stop this slowly falling economy. There was evident structural weakness in both American agriculture and industry, the economy also became very frail in the late 1920’s, and there were very unstable foundations of the American financial sector. All of these problems led up to and helped cause the Great Depression. Most or all of these problems could have been fixed if more attention was brought to them, but unfortunately there was not. Therefore, I think that the causes of the Great Depression can be considered one of Hoover’s most negative decisions made while in office, because if more attention would have been brought to these issues then the Great Depression may not have been as tragic as it really was.

Hoover’s decision to pass the “Good Neighbor Policy” was by far the best decision he made while in office. This policy set the foundation in which future presidents could build upon. This policy basically pledged that the United States would be a good neighbor to Latin America. This policy helped better the country’s relationships abroad and helped stop conflicts between foreign countries that the U.S. would have had to get involved in militarily. But, thanks to Hoover’s “Good Neighbor Policy” there was no conflict between anyone.

Although Hoover did make some very good decisions such as passing the “Good Neighbor Policy” he limited his relationship with Congress and did not do much to fix the problems that caused the Great Depression. The Great Depression impacted each and every American citizen in some way and most of the time not in a good way. He did pass a wonderful policy which set a foundation to build upon but he had little involvement in Congress and did little to address the problems which led up to and caused the Great Depression, which is why I decided to give Herbert Hoover the grade of a C- for his term as president.

"Herbert Hoover". Miller Center of Public Affairs. April 28, 2010 .

"Herbert Hoover". Online Highways LLC. April 28, 2010 .