Devastated areas and Cultural Properties as well. I will talk about three different examples today it is food aid and its physical reconstruction and the third is cultural reconstruction. This outpouring of u. S. Relief and Development Helped provide a measure of stability, it created a president for what happened in world war ii so i can talk about many of the personnel involved world war one go to be heavily involved with the u. S. And the United Nations development aid. It also forged the connection between europe and the United States that continues today. Spring of 20 night spring was a big time in the Capital Cities and Woodrow Wilson and in the spring of 1919 to the political feature here and the populations of several European Countries had critical food shortages. A deep concern over the possibility of activity and post war society, wilson in november of 1918 appointed Herbert Hoover to be id call him a food saar for europe and part of the reason he was chosen was that hoover had been running American Food program for my team 14 to 1918. Feeding roughly 9 million belgians that is the inhabitants of northern france and occupies some. Hoover had protected the Food Administration and the war time period from 1918 and wilson by executive order chose hoover to create the American Relief administration. This is hoover and these are some of the men that were involved in the belgian relief prior to the establishment of his program. American personnel traveled to europe, they services to providers and managers and helped with the work of distribution. You can kind of imagine this wall wilson and his team are in paris, the gauche eating the peace treaty theyre, hoover and his team are in brussels negotiating other kinds of bilateral and multilateral agreements to get food into europe. The agreement and brussels is signed in march of 1919 and of course as you know the paris peace treaty takes longer. But there are kind of these parallel developments is the way to think of it. One of the big issues was the fact that the blockade was still in place which doctor mentioned as well. Germany had to agreed to hand over the merchant fleet as long as they were able to get food. As american Lewis Strauss noted in the meeting, there was not a single word uttered in sentiment and no recrimination, no appeals, no references to humanity and civilization, women or children, it was a business transaction. This is description with the meeting of germany. For the public however, this isnt going to cut because the idea that this food might be going to feed former enemies in europe had to be sold to the american public. Hoover started laying out for this pretty early. This map is published in newspapers across the country in 1918 and i took this from the columbia missouri paper. You notice here that americans are being reminded that they need to pledge to help with this effort. It shows some of the countries that had famine conditions and shortages in places that were receiving some made. It was used to educate the public about the problem and called in every newspaper the hunger map to emphasize the starvation. This particular image showed the columbia paper on Christmas Day trying to emphasize the need for sympathy. To supplement these earlier efforts, hoover released a memo in march of 1919 explaining why aid. I want to read this excerpt from it because i think its how he was trying to sell this to the u. S. Population. Why we are feeding germany from the point of view of my western upbringing, i would say it once because we do not kick a man in the stomach after we have liked him. From the point of view of the governor, i would say this because famine brings anarchy and anarchy is infectious. From the point of view have the humanitarian, i would say we have not been fighting with women enter aldrin and not are beginning now. Taking in by a large the face is forward and not backwards on history. You can see how hes tried to sell this case for American Immigration in europe. The idea that u. S. Security and worlds peace dependent on carrying for victims of the war and helping nations of europe to recover is one that hoover returned to again and again. Food relief relied on the will and donations of ordinary americans while personnel lived in europe and provide substance, officials urge the public to embrace the role as protector. What began as a short term limited relief project became a larger experiment and the exploitation of American Values through food and two most of europe by not in the 1920s. I want to give one example of this and this is austria. On the 12th of november 1918 after the collapse of the hop spurred empire, it created a republic of austria and what was problematic is that many of the lands were in hungry and not in austria and some coal raised in that way and had starvation in 1918. This new nation of 6. 5 Million People also faced other challenges including political instability and large refugee population and lack of housing. The real problem was shortage of food and shortage of fuel. It has taken a big toll. The blockade which is continuing and extended the misery. And the feud cues ive spent the night sleeping outside my place in line. And marine haley has documented the hunger catastrophe and in 1918, 27 goods were rationed and even after people have waited and accused. Healy says for many residents in indiana, they had become a mathematical exercise in any available cal it eased and particularly the concern and the International Community was supplied in children and young people. They were hard hit by the lack of power but these are some of the photos some of the conditions and these were caused a from initial deficiencies. Many of the kids or the one leaving at line overnight and they would take turns but they were very much involved in this fight to get food. Childrens mortality rates nearly doubled for teenagers between 1914 and 18. This was a serious condition for children. Children were begging in the speech and they could see the stories about the children began in the international press. Partly because of the efforts of two women who eventually found it to save the Children Fund which most people of heard oven operates today. Dorothy boxed in our both british women. They created and 1990s to deal with this to telecaster fuzzy with american quakers to feed nursing mothers so the quakers were already in place and some of the british organizations. From child feeding which was the center of american efforts, relief agencies are beginning to adopt children as they can send money to feed a child and this was an innovative thing at the time. They had clothing so shores and workshops and even a milk program that imported these cows from holland to create meals for the children. But the American Relief administration focused on school age children. They set up these massive kitchens in schools to feed children a hot meal a day. Usually something that involved milk and coco and a lot of chocolates involved in this. What they did there was a lot of photographs and data to amend a calorie and would create the food to meet those needs. The coworkers are feeding the Young Children and they had me Relief Administration are feeding the middle aged kids. The adults were not so lucky and they did not focus on adults. Part of what needed to happen in order to feed these children is a needed to come up with fundraising so there is a big press campaign and the United States for people to support the send at closing and some towns in the midwest actually put together food from their community and there is a lot of a generosity encouraging the American Communities at this time. This is an example of some of the ways they kept track of this. So, one of the ways that americans continue to create additional interest and fundraising is the best way to put it is that they published the expression of gratitude that children or sending for the food that they got. This outpouring of a thanks investigated their understanding that it was making a difference and it took on an appearance of the moral imperative. For the american delegates themselves, to people that were on the ground in europe, the language of the appeals gave them a sense of power to feed and you could see these are beautiful in the library of congress there are 5000 childrens letters to Woodrow Wilson. There are letters to hoover and all of the Hoover Institution libraries and our letters like this to all the individual delegates. You can imagine how what they used for publicity purposes. I particularly like this one. This one is from germany. Fairly delegates who are on the ground you give them a sense of power and importance and stockton was one of the ar a Bureau Chiefs described his role from his mother. When i am down hearted i go out to the kitchen and i see my children eat. I think of them all as mine and every one of the 200,000 under fed little waits. This is gilchrist stockton. The u. S. Is a surrogate father which shapes the language of the fooding program. Its americas responsibility to feed and taking a paternal fall early role. The other message for americans is clear, u. S. Food would make the world safer and demonstrate good heartedness and wealth to the world. The food aid help poster u. S. Governmental claims after world war ii or after world war one that was intervening and World Affairs to safeguard democracy. Altogether, from 1940 to 1924, hoovers organization handle the shipping and distribution of more than 33 Million Metric Tons in aid which was valued at more than five billion dollars. This is a big operation as i said in multi countries and the ports that were on the map that dr. Kuehn shown given the size and the logistics of this organization. These organizations did save lives. But they also created a market for surplus food because the American Economy had ramped up to create food for the effort and what a market for it after the war so the american for rain for instance went to europe to help bolster prices for farms. It reduced stalks. Hoover himself believed that the food that they had stave off the revolution created a positive image for the United States abroad both of which were major Foreign Policy eagles. In short, through the relief efforts, citizens felt an investment in europe to sense of the mission and the isolated american public. And are continuing to have a responsibility for some of the victims. The second area i want to talk about is fixed physical reconstruction. America played a crucial role in the physical rebuilding of devastated parts in europe. This project had multiple facets and a multitude of individuals and organizations participated. Some of these are American Charities which supported Public Health and educational infrastructure. There were projects for housing, Agriculture Transport some of them were short lived and some were longer projects. One of the best known was in northern france. Where more than four years of calm brad had destroyed villages and left people displaced. Some of these villages if you travel have seen the markers for these villages at were destroyed once and rebuilt during the war and destroy it again and had to be rebuilt again. They were destroyed again and rebuilt again. In some cases, its a long relationship with the same village going through waves of rebuilding. Where the ar a and the hoover organization some of these physical reconstruction projects have a Strong Female presence in the leadership roles. One is the Smith College relief unit that rebuilt villages in northern france and rockefeller and quakers were involved. One of the most celebrated in the media was the organization which had to names during the war is the fight for french and after the war it was the American Committee for devastated grants. It was run by jpmorgans daughter through picture and other american women and these are women paying their own way and they began working in france helping refugees and assisting with rebuilding villages and homes. These are the two leaders in any dike. And they were part of the project. The 600 plus personnel in acdf helped villages in france with funds for more than 13,000 american donors by 1924 which is one a closed down the operation. Not only are there hundreds of personnel in france, but think about the publicity efforts in the United States that led to so many donations. Another Important Organization was the society of france or quakers. This was the operation where they were victims of the Relief Committee which began in 1914 and this is acdf still. The quaker started in 1914 until 1924. They helped with the reconstruction and destroyed homes and villages and projects with medical aid and refugee assistance and settlement schemes and a hospital. They expanded in 1917 and methodists and mennonites and other Conscientious Objectors that were part of this unit. In 1917, a lot of americans who were conscientious decided to go and work for quakers. These areas add a number of refugees lot of people in the region and the quakers or trying to build houses for all of these. As one of the quaker workers who will buckle down to the shirt sleeve tasks and you could see an example of this in order to do this and i find this fascinating, they need labor so they have the quaker personnel of about 1000 and were on the ground and turned to german prisoners of war who were the french government hemmed hits presenters of war in 1920 and the quakers borrowed p. O. W. Workers and i found it interesting as a question of is peace possible . The german p. O. W. s are rebuilding the businesses that their army destroyed. Its an interesting symmetry and civilian interned in britain, built furniture which they shipped to france to fill of these houses. There are a lot of levels in the post war of what the quakers thought was reconciliation work. This reconciliation or reconstruction work continued in russia and poland after this. They operated into the twenties and the committee that they founded like the Service Committee still operates today and they became permanent organizations. Here is a picture of some of the work that they did with children in france and just because of time im not going to go into a lot of detail but they are not the only organization that work. There were a lot of other religious groups that did have a food aid in europe. This is one of the jewish Relief Committees which is the big National Jewish Relief Committee and new york which was particularly active. Lots of other organizations got involved. And this i think is interesting and can tell you a little bit about the ways that they got americans involved to feel responsible and to feel like they had a vested interest in europe. I want to go to the third area. This is cultural reconstruction. While the rebuilding efforts in demonstrated jones had a lot of unamerican money and attention, i wanna mention the cultural reconstruction that took place. Americans had the relics of europe and whether they were churches, paintings or discard battlefields or conflicts. The americans got european arts and books and yet americans faced a lot of criticism because they were not involved in the nations because of some of the political stance is that they took in that period. As Emily Rosenberg argued or emphasized, the special benevolence but u. S. Action seems contradictory as we renegotiations progressed and some former allied nations felt that americans were profiteering in the post war period. As one belgian put it they promise Everything Possible but disappear as soon as it gets serious. Sea Woodrow Wilson. That is his statement on this. There is this thing that the americans want to take what they can get but are not willing to give back. This is a real tension in the post war period. The other issue that is concern is american expansion and the economic expansion and setting up markets and trying to push american products. But also this idea that americans seem to be promoting the ar a and that they were more efficient and scientific and could whip europe into shape. Europeans didnt always respond all that well to this. Wilson and his contemporary viewed the u. S. As having a special ability to have a peaceful world. They felt that war relief should show this. There were some in the United States who doubted this or maybe were a little cynical. This is from a Chicago Tribune editorial called who will rebuild europe and i will quote a little short segment from it. Various american millionaires philanthropic or otherwise propose that the United States shall undertake the rebuilding of europe after the war is over. However, americans have anesthetic experience and not as living nations as the dismantled prop gun is almost as interesting as the ancient armor. There will be trenches in historic battlefields. If they have any money at all will be willing to russia europe and this is written in 1916 before they entered the war. Indeed a, lot of americans rushed to europe and this is part of the tension. Many collectors were trying to acquire treasures but also trying to protect them. Because of the threat that the warhead posed. I put a couple up here that i thought you might find interesting and if youve been to this museum on the left or the cluster there was acquired in the 19 thirties and it was put into the museum in the 19 fifties. The unicorn tapestries were in new york city and they purchased those in 1923 and move them here to the United States. And then you could go into the museum and see it upstairs. This was on tour at the chicago world fair before it was acquired and install here at the museum 20 years later. These are just a few examples been to museums or youve seen these european cultural auto facts that were here in the post war period. In the midst of this buyers market, to particular european icons both were really important in propaganda became the focus then on one of them is the library in belgium and the other is the kasia drill in france. I will talk about the library just for a few minutes and for the United States the library was supposed to have american appreciation for culture and to allow the United States to celebrate a legacy of its soldiers. It was a symbol of the europe of the imagination and just as a little background in case you dont know youre belgian history when the war broke out in belgium it was a neutral nation. But the german army got to the city on the 25th of august. It had a population of 40,000 people and the army kind of went nuts as part of this invasion. They were afraid that there might be civilian snipers where there were rumors that set off a lot of spontaneous violence. As a result, shoulder soldiers panicked and in three days time, more than 200 civilians were dead and 1100 billion things have been torched and the library was a burned out shell and in the case of the latter there were many accounts has said german shoulders delivered it on fire in order to destroy this cultural icon. The library had a medieval collection that was destroyed. There were just a few charged remnants at the end. For americans this became part of the propaganda of the war as an example of cultural sites that ive been targeted and destroyed. It violated their sense of civilized warfare should be. By the end of 1914 it had become synonymous with neutrality and atrocities and a threat to european culture and at the same time the u. S. Is also feeding civilians so theres a lot of investment unemotionally in belgium. Lots of belgian baby days to raise money for feeding belgian kids and whoever is ramped up this machine and it kind of made sense for the United States to make its mark culturally in europe by rebuilding something in belgium. The person who was chosen to lead this effort is Nicholas Murray butler whos the president at Columbia University at the time. He was ahead of the institution responsible for peace. The thing with butler is that a lot of other nations will contribute money and help build his library again, he wanted to be an american monument. He turned down money from other countries including britain and his vision was idealistic. They wanted the library to be built stone by stone and lots of donations from all over the country. As he said in this boettcher, build this memorial as a reminder of americas friendship for peoples and a fight for democracy. Its to represent all americans and men, women and children everywhere. You can see the overlap here and many of his speeches. In europe, officially they welcomed this idea because the americans were going to pump money and rebuild the library. But they looked at it and wanted some say over what does look like. But i think that americans saw themselves as caretakers and it is not a coincidence that the First Western civilization course was taught in 1919 at Columbia University. Many of you have taken this and its not taught in europe because its an american course. You know that it ends with u. S. Power and by the 19 fifties. Its a peculiar american view and at first it seemed to go well and the architects was Whitney Warren and the new york city design. He had ideas about what he wanted is to look like. The button they used with the stars and stripes which everything seemed to go swimmingly. The problem was that they raised 500,000 dollars and that they did actually raise a lot of the money and here is some more of the fundraising. You did what you did then and it did raise a lot of it which is one of the stones on the library today. Every college in school and club had a stone on the side of the library and its all finished by 1924 and a half finished library would not serve american interests abroad or the way the volumes work that was reporting again. I can talk about this but germany was required to provide the new stuff to put in the library. All these donations were coming in from germany and had to put them somewhere and didnt have a library bill to put them in. By november of 1924, the New York Times was calling the library of promise unfulfilled. By january, bull newspapers in both countries they had appealed who was now u. S. Secretary to fix the problem instead whoever we cant let this happen. I think his intervention which lays bare in these controversies and involving the president s and the 1920s and the u. S. Congress issued former political involvement and privately the economic elites all the time. And as u. S. Ambassador phillips wrote to secretary of state hues, the unhappy situations involving the library is tending to affect our prestige. All americans here are deeply concerned and in short, the u. S. Council that the completion of the library was to finish. Eventually, they do manage to secure the floods but they have to do it by basically taken money for a relief and belgian and their leftover money. Rocker fowler has the money because we cant let this embarrassment stand even though he refuse earlier to give the money. Hoovers personal intervention starvation and the large gift from this er be led to the completion of the library. The ceremony was held on july 4th 1928 and none of the americans responsible went to the ceremony. Not the architect or whoever and not butler. Because it had just been such a terrible situation. What ive begun as transformed into an exercise and saving the national face. As many of you may know the library was destroyed in the Second World War. Particular lee bad was the fact that the highly touted american lost to all the precious books which turned out to be not so good and melted and destroyed everything so it was rebuilt again. When it was rebuilt again it was with International Funds and that was the library today. Id like to conclude i dont have time to delve in how they identified european culture but you know about novels and films. Paris alone had 32,000 american residents and i grew by the end of the decade. Although the u. S. Senate a drew directed the democratic role laden ott have their post war period and to the world it be another way to talk about this and a significant part and shaping the economy. It was the center of ongoing debates and reparation payments and financial matters. They travel to europe to see for themselves the battlefield and made pilgrimage through a gold star mothers. They donated reconstruction projects and visited cultural exhibits or europe itself. They helped relieve the suffering of the populations and return a proprietary and feeling towards the european culture. They developed protectors and not just starving children. Democratic values abroad that western civilization himself. It was only heightened after the Second World War and they intervened again in a much greater way. Thanks. applause im happy to take questions if you have them. I know we covered a lot here. I am microphone is ready to go. Grab this one right back here and if you will see me back here. As you know, the tower flies the American Flag on july 4th. And when the library burned, the shell of the libraries survived and it was a fantastic first world war. Absolutely. The library today is fantastic and its funny as an american because when you think about Herbert Hoover in the United States and how they see him and this presidency, its a huge bust of Herbert Hoover next to the library in the square but stayed after her. Its a very different history of the United States and something you might see here in our public buildings. Our next question comes from doctor john. I dont know the answer to this but its a legit question. Herbert hoover is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the nomination can you talk a little bit about that process and why didnt with it. Several of the people involved are nominated and to my knowledge only one who wins is the one who was a young princeton graduate and worked in the ar a and as the first head of unicef off the road word to. Heres an example of how a lot of these personnel who have a chart in my book that im writing when you look at the men that were involved from 1914 a 1924. What they end up doing later and unicef has them on the how and it was just the politics of hoover who was a prickly fellow. He was in that much more diplomatic. First of all, thank you. How is this relief effort affected by and how did it affect the influenza pandemic. Thats a great question. He asked about the influenza epidemic. I will give you the short version which is that there are still thousands of people dying from influenza and many of the workers themselves get sick. If you add the parts of europe where they have had bad problems with food and fuel and soap shortages they have high face. Some of the workers are killed from that but it does exacerbate the problem. The rockefeller palaces working on its tuberculosis. The rates just escalate at the end of the war because of overcrowding, bad housing and some places have been teen soap since 1917. It was that bad. It was a very enlightening talk. I wonder if you could in view the destruction of the inaudible rule and the reconstruction of the rounds. I was in europe in april watching it on tv when notre dame is seeing it burn and as one of the first represents in the european news was the reconstruction and the other one was to north minister which was much later. Rockefeller largely funded the reconstruction of this cathedral in france. It also had some controversy. It wasnt quite in the same way because it was controlled by the one foundation. The issue with the library the american projects are contributing and it had a much more stronger hand in shaping what that would look like and its fantastic could get a chance to see it. Thank you i was a great top. Ive a question about the german p. O. W. s that affected other people to rebuild europe. They get paid to do that . Or they forced to do that . Or they volunteer to get out of the p. O. W. Camps . They didnt volunteer lets put it that way. Its a great question and i wrote an article on this so they know the answer. The p. O. W. s who are working for quakers were paid but they werent allowed to get their money through p. O. W. s. But the quakers did and i think its fascinating. Its wonderful material for people who want to do assertation on this. They sent a team of three people to germany with a pay packet and photographs of the p. O. W. s. We visited the families and they took the pay and photos and stories and collected information about conditions at the same time and these are in the quaker archives. This is what sort of the quaker mission. A lot of these were not paid for the reconstruction work and theyre doing some pretty nasty stuff. Brief question. Was there any aid in germany and i think you did mention something about austria but they were starting to. Thats a great question. The United States met germany as well and hoover was concerned about what it would look like with the United States with enemies so the money was funneled through the Service Organization with quakers. There is a correspondence between hoover and the quake are saying this is what you need to do but we want you to call this quaker feud. The picture with the childrens dryness as quaker on it is because being funneled through there and there was an American Relief administration on the ground and or trying to catch this as a pacifist effort they raise money from german americans as a separate advertising campaign. My family is german american. I wonder if they contributed. They were all there. On that note ladies and gentlemen please join me and a thanking tammy proctor. applause . Talking about stuff going on in russia again and i feel like everything is relevant in the world today that can expect a world war one. Our next speaker is james carl nelson. Hes about the books world war one and the remains of company five lieutenants and is the winner of the colonel Joseph Alexander award for the marine corps and heritage foundation. The polar bear expedition and the heroes of the forgotten nation of russia in 1918 to 1919 which a learn more about his lecture today. A graduate and journalism from the university of minnesota and a staff writer for the miami herald and the last three decades of major stories. He can expand it even further on that concept. Its an active member and currently lives in eaten prairie minnesota where hes working on his fifth book and please welcome if you please join me and giving a round of applause for james carl nelson. applause what a warm up. Is this thing on . Good. I have my swag here. Thank you for coming and well talk about the polar bears, thats a lonely photo isnt it . Thats the 1919 piece we start about a guy named harry