Herbert Hoover arrived in Berlin in March 1938. His itinerary included a 40-minute private audience with Adolf Hitler and dinner with Hermann Göring. The former encounter, naturally, has drawn more interest from historians, and any study of the encounter is greatly aided by a summary of the meeting — based on translations of the discussion — held in the National Archives (via the Presidential Primary Sources Project).
Per the summary, Hoover began his meeting with Hitler on a positive note. He favorably compared the state of Germany in 1938 to what he beheld 20 years earlier after the end of World War I. “All was depressed and despondent then,” the former president said, but he now found “a very hopeful, live atmosphere” throughout the country. He told Hitler that Germany’s economic progress was being followed with great interest back in the United States, where the speed of Germany’s recovery could not possibly be matched.
Such praise, however, was qualified. Hoover noted that America’s slower pace at building programs and organizations to facilitate such rapid growth was due to the country’s commitment to personal liberty. Per The Washington Post, Hitler replied that Germany couldn’t afford to indulge such notions as it built itself up.
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