14. Herbert Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and virulently opposed Franklin Roosevelt
When Herbert Hoover left office in 1933 he was the only living ex-president, a distinction he would hold until 1953, when Harry Truman joined him. Hoover became a vocal and strident opponent of the policies of Franklin Roosevelt embodied in the New Deal, through speeches and numerous books and articles. Hoover felt that he was unjustly blamed for the Great Depression, but also that the expansion of the executive branch of government was an unconstitutional response to it, and was in many ways worsening its effects on the American economy. In the late 1930s, still deeply unpopular in the United States, Hoover traveled to Europe, where he was well-received in several countries, including Germany, where the Nazi leaders considered him to be an ally against Roosevelt.
Although Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and was a guest at Karinhall, Herman Goering’s hunting estate, he was disgusted by what he found concerning the treatment of the Jews. He later said that Hitler was “mad”. He opposed American intervention in the war, including Lend-Lease, and later argued against any support of the Russians. After the war he was sent to Germany by Harry Truman to observe the conditions there; his reports helped lead to the Marshall Plan. Hoover did not receive any pension from the government until 1958, and accepted it then only because Truman, the only other living ex-president, was forced to due to his financial status, and Hoover, a wealthy man, wanted to save him embarrassment.