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Herbert Hoover Term: 1929-1933 Political Party: Republican Vice President: Charles Curtis

During Hoover's presidency he made many wrong and right decisions. The stock market crashed and the Great Depression had finally begun. His attempts at fixing the Depression really did not work which did not help him out at all. On the plus side he did put into place the Good Neighbor Policy which helped us out internationally. He also toured the country to really get a feel of how bad the country was getting for people. His good decisons were not really able to cancel out his bad decisons so Hoover deserves a C for his presidency.

At the start of his term Hoover's main goals were to improve education for Indian reservations, prison reform, and set aside money for national parks. During the first few months of his term Hoover did a very good job establishing national parks. He even provided some money for the Indian Reserves to better their education. However after the stock market crash he more wanted to focus on getting the economy back into order. Unfortuantely at the end of his term the economy only got worse and the Depression deepened. So Hoover was able to complete his first few goals but failed in completeing the one goal the country really needed.

​Even though most of Congress was Republican, Hoover still did not have the best relationship with Congress. Hoover never really got involved with Congress. A lot of the time he let Congress deal with all the legislation and he went along wih what they wanted. However, when he did get invovled he ended up vetoing what Congress wanted to pass. Hoover also supported a higher tariff. Most of the Republicans in Congress did not approve of the higher tariff. This disagreement put even more tension on the relationship between Congress and President Hoover.

President Hoover's best decision was establishing the Good Neighbor Policy. At the start of this policy he toured many different Latin American countries and gave them speeches mostly about their freedom. This policy did remove American troops from many different Latin American countries and it gave them their independence. This relieved tensions between America and these different countries and halted any possible future wars. This policy also helped settle a dispute between Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Even though this policy is known to go along with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hoover first put the policy into place.

The worst decison made by Hoover was the Hawley-Smoot tariff. This tariff severly hurt our economy and all international relationships that America had with other countries. Hoover thought that such a high tariff would help out and provide the relief our economy greatly needed. However this tariff cut off all trade with other countries, which drove us even further towards isolationism. With no trade being done money was being lost due to having to try to produce things on our own. This tariff greatly hurt America's economy and deepened the Depression to an even worse state.

The most influential thing that happened during his presidency was the Great Depression. The Depression was, of course, not entirely his fault, however he could have done more to prevent it from getting as bad as it did. Both the industry and agricultural systems in America were very weak, due to lack of trade with other countries. Money was being lost and more debt was beginning to add up. Unfortuantely Hoover did not really do much to help any of the problems that were going on around the country.

As stated earlier Hoover made an equal amount of right and wrong decisions. Accomplishing his first few goals does help out his grade, but then the failure of accomplishing his goal to fix the economy lowers the grade. His relationship with Congress also does not really help him out. The Good Neighbor Policy was a very smart decision. It helped him to be able to focus more on our own country than on others. Unfortuantely the Hawley-Smoot tariff cancels out the good that was accomplished with the Good Neighbor Policy. With all this Hoover deserves a C for his term as president.

"Herbert Hoover." //The White House.// Web. 29 April 2010. []. "American President: Herbert Clark Hoover." //Miller Center of Public Affairs.// Web. 29 APril 2010. [].