- Born:
- Oct. 2, 1871, Overton county, Tenn., U.S.
- Died:
- July 23, 1955, Bethesda, Md. (aged 83)
- Title / Office:
- United States Senate (1931-1933), United States
- Political Affiliation:
- Democratic Party
- Awards And Honors:
- Nobel Prize (1945)
Cordell Hull
-
Who was Cordell Hull?
Cordell Hull (1871–1955) was a U.S. statesman who served as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944. Hull initiated the reciprocal trade program to lower tariffs, which expanded world trade in the second half of the 20th century, and he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1945 for his role in organizing the United Nations.
Hull served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 22 years and in the Senate (1931–33). As Secretary of State under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he advocated for lower tariff barriers and improved U.S. relations with Latin America through the Good Neighbor Policy. Hull also rejected Japan's attempt to dominate China and, with the outbreak of World War II, aided the Allies.
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What important position did Cordell Hull hold in the U.S. government?
Cordell Hull was the U.S. Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944. Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hull is credited with initiating the reciprocal trade program to lower tariffs, which facilitated expanded world trade in the latter half of the 20th century. He also improved relations with Latin America through the Good Neighbor Policy. Hull rejected Japan's attempt to establish dominance in China and advocated for U.S. interests in the Pacific. Cordell Hull is also known for his work on planning a postwar peacekeeping body, and is described by Roosevelt as the "father of the United Nations". In 1945, he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in organizing the United Nations.
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What is Cordell Hull best known for in American history?
Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State (1933–44) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is best known for initiating the reciprocal trade program to lower tariffs, which facilitated expanded world trade in the second half of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in organizing the United Nations, earning him the 1945 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Hull improved U.S. relations with Latin America through the Good Neighbor Policy and fostered a united front against Axis aggression during World War II. He advocated for China's rights and promoted military preparedness in the Pacific. Hull's efforts to maintain American neutrality shifted to aiding the Allies during the war.
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How did Cordell Hull help create the United Nations?
Cordell Hull was the U.S. Secretary of State (1933–44) and a key figure in the creation of the United Nations. Hull, along with his State Department colleagues, started planning for a post-war international body to maintain peace and security. Despite his poor health, he attended the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers in 1943, where he secured a four-nation pledge to continue wartime cooperation in a post-war organization. Because of his work, Franklin D. Roosevelt called Hull the "father of the United Nations," and he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1945 for his work in organizing the United Nations.
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Why did Cordell Hull receive the Nobel Peace Prize?
Cordell Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his crucial role in organizing the United Nations. As U.S. Secretary of State (1933–44), Hull initiated the reciprocal trade program, which reduced tariffs and facilitated expanded world trade in the second half of the 20th century. He also improved relations with Latin America through the Good Neighbor Policy and fostered a united front of American republics against Axis aggression during World War II. Hull's efforts to maintain American neutrality shifted to aiding the Allies, and he firmly advocated for China's rights during negotiations with Japan.
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How did Cordell Hull’s international policies shape world events during his time as Secretary of State?
As Secretary of State, Cordell Hull significantly shaped world events through his international policies. His reciprocal trade program, initiated to lower tariffs, facilitated expanded global trade, exemplified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Hull improved U.S. relations with Latin America through the Good Neighbor Policy, promoting non-intervention and counteracting distrust from previous U.S. actions. He also stood against Japanese expansion in East Asia, advocating for the rights of China and U.S. interests in the Pacific.
Recognizing that American neutrality would encourage Axis aggression, Hull and President Roosevelt aided the Allies during World War II. Hull's firm stance in negotiations with Japan emphasized the abandonment of military conquests in China. Post-war, Hull helped plan the United Nations, securing a four-nation pledge for international cooperation aimed at maintaining peace and security, which garnered him the Nobel Prize.
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Cordell Hull (born Oct. 2, 1871, Overton county, Tenn., U.S.—died July 23, 1955, Bethesda, Md.) was the U.S. secretary of state (1933–44) whose initiation of the reciprocal trade program to lower tariffs set in motion the mechanism for expanded world trade in the second half of the 20th century. In 1945 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his part in organizing the United Nations.
As a young Tennessee attorney, Hull early identified with the Democratic Party. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 22 years (1907–21, 1923–31) and in the Senate (1931–33). Appointed secretary of state by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt at the beginning of the New Deal, he called for a reversal of high tariff barriers that had increasingly stultified U.S. foreign trade since the 19th century. He first won presidential support and public acclaim for such proposals at the inter-American Montevideo Conference (December 1933). He next succeeded in getting Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (March 1934), which set the pattern for tariff reduction on a most-favoured-nation basis and was a forerunner to the international General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), begun in 1948.
Throughout the 1930s Hull did much to improve the United States’ relations with Latin America by implementing what came to be known as the Good Neighbor Policy. At the Montevideo Pan-American Conference (1933) his self-effacing behaviour and acceptance of the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of other nations began to counteract the distrust built up through decades of Yankee imperialism in Latin America. He also attended the Pan-American Conference at Buenos Aires (1936) and a special foreign ministers’ conference at Havana (1940). Because of the favourable climate of opinion that he had largely created, Hull successfully sponsored a united front of American republics against Axis aggression during World War II.
In East Asia he rejected a proposed “Japanese Monroe Doctrine” that would have given that country a free hand in China (1934). When Japan served notice later that year that it would not renew the naval-limitation treaties (due to expire in 1936), Hull announced a policy of maintenance of U.S. interests in the Pacific, continuing friendship with China, and military preparedness.
With the outbreak of World War II, Hull and Roosevelt felt that efforts to maintain American neutrality would only encourage aggression by the Axis powers; they therefore decided to aid the Allies. In the crucial negotiations with Japan in the autumn of 1941, Hull stood firm for the rights of China, urging Japan to abandon its military conquests on the mainland.
When the United States entered the war, Hull and his State Department colleagues began planning an international postwar peacekeeping body. At the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers (1943)—despite his frail health and advancing age—he obtained a four-nation pledge to continue wartime cooperation in a postwar world organization aimed at maintaining peace and security. For this work, Roosevelt described Hull as the “father of the United Nations,” and universal recognition of his key role came with the Nobel Prize. He resigned after the 1944 presidential election and wrote his Memoirs of Cordell Hull (1950).