HULL, CORDELL 1871-1955

SECRETARY OF STATE (1933-1944)

A Popular Democrat

Cordell Hull was the longest-serving secretary of state in American history. For much of that time he was one of the most popular Democrats in the nation, and until President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his intention to seek an unprecedented third term, Hull was considered the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1940.

Background

Born in Tennessee, Hull graduated from Cumberland University Law School in 1891 and was elected to the Tennessee legislature two years later. After serving in the Spanish-American War and working as a lawyer, he was appointed a Tennessee circuit court judge in 1903. In 1907 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where as a progressive Democrat he was instrumental in sponsoring several important tax laws, including the Federal Income Tax Act of 1913. During the 1920s he actively promoted reciprocal trade agreements as a means to enhance U.S. foreign trade. In 1930 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until he became Roosevelt's secretary of state in March 1933. Under Hull's leadership the State Department successfully negotiated reciprocal trade agreements with Britain, France, and many Latin American countries. Hull spearheaded the administration's "Good Neighbor Policy" with Central and South America.

World War II

As tensions increased in Europe in the years prior to World War II, Roosevelt increasingly held the reins of American foreign policy, and Hull, ever loyal to the president, was to some degree pushed aside. To a large extent Hull was in charge of the unsuccessful negotiations with the Japanese until the month before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Roosevelt directed much of European foreign policy himself, relying on Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, sometimes to Hull's great vexation. (Instead of sending Hull as special emissary to Europe in 1940, Roosevelt sent Welles, who was a personal friend.) Roosevelt reportedly told W. Averell Harriman that he did not take Hull to his conferences with Churchill and Stalin because Hull was "difficult to handle.… [and] would be a nuisance." In private conversations Hull sometimes expressed his frustration with the president's "treatment of the [State] Department and encroachment in foreign affairs." During the war Hull reportedly told Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau jr., a The President runs foreign affairs. I don't know what's going on. , .. Since Pearl Harbor he does not let me help in connection with foreign affairs." In public, however, Hull supported Roosevelt with vigor.

Creating the United Nations

Hull succeeded in ousting Welles from the State Department in 1943 and thereafter enjoyed more involvement in and control over U.S. foreign policy and negotiations. In October 1943 Hull met with Anthony Eden of Great Britain and V. M. Molotov of the Soviet Union in Moscow to lay the groundwork for the creation of the United Nations. Addressing a joint session of Congress on his return from Moscow, Hull declared that in the postwar world "there will no longer be need for spheres of influence.…" In this judgment—as well as in his assessment of Stalin as "a remarkable personality, one of the great statesmen and leaders of his age"—Hull missed the mark. Hull contributed further to establishing the groundwork for the United Nations, playing prominent roles at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (August-October 1944), where proposals for the charter were drawn up, and at the founding conference in San Francisco (April-June 1945). In 1945 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Retirement

Having resigned as secretary of state in December 1944, Hull spent the early years of his retirement writing his memoirs. After a lengthy illness, he died in 1955.