Calvin B. Hoover

Nationality

U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1897

Date of Death

1974

Political
Preference

Hoover was a noted economist with considerable knowledge about the economic life of Russia, as well as Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Hoover entered government service during the New Deal, and worked for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) – which aimed to raise the prices on farmer’s products. During World War II he was called in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he worked on undercutting German production capabilities.

In 1947, he was called to serve on the President’s Committee on Foreign Aid. He was a strong proponent of expanding international free trade, as he thought this was in the American economic interest. Moreover, in this regard, he deemed it crucial that Europe regain its proper place in the international economic system, as a buyer and a seller of products. He therefore was an advocate of German economic and industrial recovery, for he viewed German economic recovery as the nucleus of the European economic recovery. From 1948 onwards, he served in Averell Harriman’s Office of the Special Representative (OSR) in Paris, which oversaw the progress of the European Recovery Program (ERP).