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180-693: U.S. President Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) was an alumnus of Stanford University , graduating in 1895 to become a mining engineer . Successful in business enterprise from an early age in a managerial capacity, Hoover also developed a deep affection for book collecting , building an impressive personal collection. When World War I erupted, Hoover found himself in Europe, quickly becoming involved in ongoing efforts to provide relief aid to wartime refugees . In 1915 Hoover's professional life intersected with his bibliophilic proclivities when his friend Ephraim D. Adams suggested that Hoover take it upon himself to preserve

360-801: A Nationalist government in Nanking . During the campaign, the KMT–CCP alliance broke down in 1927 and Chiang massacred the communists in Shanghai , triggering the Chinese Civil War . As the leader of the ROC during the Nanking decade , Chiang sought to modernise and unify the nation, although hostilities with the CCP continued. His government presided over economic and social reconstruction while trying to avoid

540-573: A "third alternative" between "unrestrained capitalism" and socialism , which was becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Hoover sought to foster a balance among labor, capital, and the government, and for this, he has been variously labeled a corporatist or an associationalist . A high priority was economic diplomacy, including promoting the growth of exports, as well as protection against monopolistic practices of foreign governments, especially regarding rubber and coffee. Hoover demanded, and received, authority to coordinate economic affairs throughout

720-457: A $ 120,000 inheritance, and the reason is that according to her niece, that she donated most of her wealth when she was still alive. Chiang, requiring support, tolerated corruption with people in his inner circles, as well as high-ranking nationalist officials, but not of lower-ranking officers. In 1934, he ordered seven military officers who embezzled state property to be shot. In another case, several division commanders pleaded with Chiang to pardon

900-415: A 1969 speech, Chiang related a story about his boat trip to Japan at nineteen years old. Another passenger on the ship, a Chinese fellow student who was in the habit of spitting on the floor, was chided by a Chinese sailor who said that Japanese people did not spit on the floor, but instead would spit into a handkerchief. Chiang used the story as an example of how the common man in 1969 Taiwan had not developed

1080-497: A London-based independent mining consultant and financier. Though he had risen to prominence as a geologist and mine operator, Hoover focused much of his attention on raising money, restructuring corporate organizations, and financing new ventures. He specialized in rejuvenating troubled mining operations, taking a share of the profits in exchange for his technical and financial expertise. Hoover thought of himself and his associates as "engineering doctors to sick concerns", and he earned

1260-639: A brutal right-wing dictator and head of a corrupt authoritarian regime which massacred civilians and suppressed political dissent. He is also criticized for his flooding of the Yellow River and for allowing the Honan Famine during the war with Japan. Chiang is also credited with transforming China from a semi-colony of various imperialist powers to an independent country by amending the unequal treaties signed by previous governments, as well as moving various national treasures and traditional artworks to

1440-433: A classmate named Lou Henry , though his financial situation precluded marriage at that time. The daughter of a banker from Monterey, California , Lou Henry decided to study geology at Stanford after attending a lecture delivered by John C. Branner . Immediately after earning a promotion in 1898, Hoover cabled Lou Henry, asking her to marry him. After she cabled back her acceptance of the proposal, Hoover briefly returned to

1620-441: A connection with the personal name of the person. As the courtesy name is the name used by people of the same generation to address the person, Chiang soon became known under this new name. Sometime in 1917 or 1918, as Chiang became close to Sun Yat-sen, he changed his name from Chiang Chih-ch‘ing to Chiang Chung-cheng ( Chinese : 蔣中正 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chung -cheng ). By adopting

1800-597: A contender in the 1920 presidential election. Hoover's wartime push for higher taxes, criticism of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer 's actions during the First Red Scare , and his advocacy for measures such as the minimum wage , forty-eight-hour workweek, and elimination of child labor made him appealing to progressives of both parties. Despite his service in the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson, Hoover had never been closely affiliated with either

1980-639: A criminal officer, but as soon as the division commanders had left, Chiang ordered him shot. The deputy editor and chief reporter at the Central Daily News, Lu Keng , made headline international news by exposing the corruption of two senior officials, Kong Xiangxi ( H. H. Kung ) and T. V. Soong . Chiang then ordered a thorough investigation of the Central Daily News to find the source. However, Lu, risked execution by refusing to comply and protecting his journalists. Chiang wanting to avoid an international response and so jailed Lu instead. Chiang realized

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2160-539: A critical food situation; Hoover estimated that as many as 400 million people faced the possibility of starvation. The United States Food Administration became the American Relief Administration (ARA), and Hoover was charged with providing food to Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to providing relief, the ARA rebuilt infrastructure in an effort to rejuvenate the economy of Europe. Throughout

2340-463: A frontal war against Japan and prioritizing anti-communist suppression was widely unpopular and provoked nationwide protests. In 1932, while Chiang was seeking first to defeat the Communists, Japan launched an advance on Shanghai and bombarded Nanjing. That disrupted Chiang's offensives against the Communists for a time, but it was the northern factions of Hu Hanmin's Guangdong government (notably

2520-453: A future presidential bid throughout the 1920s, but he carefully avoided alienating Coolidge, who possibly could have run for another term in the 1928 presidential election . Along with the rest of the nation, he was surprised when Coolidge announced in August 1927 that he would not seek another term. With the impending retirement of Coolidge, Hoover immediately emerged as the front-runner for

2700-536: A helpless lone war. We were alone in a desert, with no available or possible assistance could we look forward to. But our determination was never shaken, nor was hope abandoned. In early 1906, Chiang cut off his queue , the required hairstyle of men during the Ch‘ing dynasty , and had it sent home from school, shocking the people in his hometown. Chiang grew up at a time in which military defeats, natural disasters, famines, revolts, unequal treaties and civil wars had left

2880-586: A huge crowd that he would continue the policies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations. The Democrats nominated New York governor Al Smith , who became the first Catholic major party nominee for president. Hoover submitted his resignation as Commerce Secretary on July 7, but Coolidge kept him on until August 21 to wind up pending business. Hoover centered his campaign around the Republican record of peace and prosperity, as well as his own reputation as

3060-545: A large property on the remote north coast of Santa Cruz County. The Theodore J. Hoover Natural Preserve is now part of Big Basin State Park . World War I broke out in August 1914, pitting Germany and its allies against France and its allies. The German Schlieffen plan was to achieve a quick victory by marching through neutral Belgium to envelop the French Army east of Paris. The maneuver failed to reach Paris but

3240-727: A military education in China and Japan and joined Sun Yat-sen 's Tungmenghui revolutionary organization in 1908. After the 1911 Revolution , he was a founding member of the KMT, becoming one of Sun's closest lieutenants and head of the Whampoa Military Academy . After Sun's death in 1925, Chiang became commander-in-chief of the NRA, and led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, which nominally reunified China under

3420-640: A mine scout for a year, Hoover was hired by Bewick, Moreing & Co. ("Bewick"), a London-based company that operated gold mines in Western Australia . He first went to Coolgardie , then the center of the Eastern Goldfields , which was actually in Western Australia , receiving a $ 5,000 salary (equivalent to $ 183,120 in 2023). Conditions were harsh in the goldfields; Hoover described the Coolgardie and Murchison rangelands on

3600-493: A model Uniform Vehicle Code for adoption by the states and a Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance for adoption by cities. Both were widely influential, promoting greater uniformity between jurisdictions and tending to promote the automobile's priority in city streets. Phillips Payson O'Brien argues that Hoover had a Britain problem. He had spent so many years living in Britain and Australia, as an employee of British companies, there

3780-696: A national leadership conference in Nanjing with Zhang Xueliang and General Ma Fuxiang during which Chiang and Zhang dauntlessly upheld that Manchuria was part of China in the face of the Japanese invasion. After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Chiang resigned as Chairman of the National Government. He returned shortly afterward and adopted the slogan "first internal pacification, then external resistance." However, his policy of avoiding

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3960-618: A pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded: Voice of the Army ( 軍聲 ). Jieshi is the pinyin romanization of this name, based on Standard Chinese , but the most recognized romanized rendering is Kai-shek which is in Cantonese romanization. Because the Republic of China was based in Canton (a Cantonese-speaking area), Chiang (who never spoke Cantonese but

4140-695: A photograph that had been taken in Japan c.  1895 or 1898. It showed members of the Revive China Society with Yeung Ku-wan as president, in the place of honor, and Sun, as secretary, on the back row, along with members of the Japanese Chapter of the Revive China Society. When told that it was not for sale, Chiang offered a million dollars to recover the photo and its negative, "The party must have this picture and

4320-411: A prosperous family of salt merchants . Chiang's father died when he was eight, and he wrote of his mother as the "embodiment of Confucian virtues ". The young Chiang was inspired throughout his youth by the realization that the reputation of an honored family rested upon his shoulders. He was a naughty child. At a young age he was interested in the military. As he grew older, Chiang became more aware of

4500-671: A reputation as a "doctor of sick mines". He made investments on every continent and had offices in San Francisco; London; New York City; Paris; Petrograd ; and Mandalay , British Burma . By 1914, Hoover was a very wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $ 4 million (equivalent to $ 121.67 million in 2023). Hoover co-founded the Zinc Corporation to extract zinc near the Australian city of Broken Hill , New South Wales . The Zinc Corporation developed

4680-447: A rock', is the beginning of line 2 of Hexagram 16 , " 豫 ". Others note that the first character of his courtesy name is also the first character of the courtesy name of his brother and other male relatives on the same generational line, while the second character of his courtesy name shih ( 石 —meaning "stone") suggests the second character of his "register name" tai ( 泰 —the famous Mount Tai ). Courtesy names in China often bore

4860-555: A separate mine in the Altai Mountains that, according to Hoover, "developed probably the greatest and richest single body of ore known in the world". In his spare time, Hoover wrote. His lectures at Columbia and Stanford universities were published in 1909 as Principles of Mining , which became a standard textbook. The book reflects his move towards progressive ideals, as Hoover came to endorse eight-hour workdays and organized labor . Hoover became deeply interested in

5040-653: A successful engineer and public official. Averse to giving political speeches, Hoover largely stayed out of the fray and left the campaigning to Curtis and other Republicans. Smith was more charismatic and gregarious than Hoover, but his campaign was damaged by anti-Catholicism and his overt opposition to Prohibition. Hoover had never been a strong proponent of Prohibition, but he accepted the Republican Party's plank in favor of it and issued an ambivalent statement calling Prohibition "a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose". In

5220-457: A town in Yixing , Jiangsu, about 38 km (24 mi) southwest of central Wuxi and 10 km (6.2 mi) from the shores of Lake Tai . He was the third child and second son of his father Chiang Chao-Tsung  [ zh ] (also Chiang Su-an; 1842–1895; 蔣肇聰 ) and the first child of his father's third wife Wang Tsai-yu  [ zh ] (1863–1921; 王采玉 ) who were members of

5400-891: A unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death". In 1919, Hoover established the Hoover War Collection at Stanford University. He donated all the files of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U.S. Food Administration, and the American Relief Administration, and pledged $ 50,000 as an endowment (equivalent to $ 878,695 in 2023). Scholars were sent to Europe to collect pamphlets, society publications, government documents, newspapers, posters, proclamations, and other ephemeral materials related to

5580-703: A war with Japan. In 1936, he was kidnapped in the Sian Incident , and obliged to form an anti-Japanese Second United Front with the CCP. After the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937, Chiang mobilised China for the Second Sino-Japanese War , and over the next eight years led the war of resistance, mostly from Chungking . As the leader of a major Allied power , Chiang attended the Cairo Conference to discuss terms for

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5760-607: A way that had not been possible when the nation lacked an effective central government. Under that context, the Chinese Rural Reconstruction Movement was implemented by some social activists who graduated as professors of the United States with tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economic, cultural, and educational equipment and the mechanisms of rural regions. The social activists actively co-ordinated with

5940-528: A wealthy mining engineer. In 1914, the outbreak of World War I , he organized and headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, an international relief organization that provided food to occupied Belgium . When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to lead the Food Administration. He became famous as his country's "food czar". After the war, Hoover led the American Relief Administration , which provided food to

6120-688: Is spelled using a Cantonese transliteration he adopted as opposed to Hanyu Pinyin, though pinyin was adopted by the Republic of China government in 2009 as its official romanization. Chiang was born on 31 October 1887, in Hsikow , a town in Fenghua , Zhejiang , China, about 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of central Ningbo . He was born into a family of Wu Chinese-speaking people with their ancestral home —a concept important in Chinese society —in Heqiao,

6300-781: Is the name under which Chiang is still commonly known in Taiwan. Often the name is shortened to "Chung-cheng" only. Many public places in Taiwan are named Chungcheng after Chiang. For many years passengers arriving at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport were greeted by signs in Chinese welcoming them to the "Chung Cheng International Airport". Similarly, the monument erected to Chiang's memory in Taipei, known in English as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall ,

6480-517: The 1932 presidential election . Hoover's retirement was over 31 years long, one of the longest presidential retirements. He authored numerous works and became increasingly conservative in retirement. He strongly criticized Roosevelt's foreign policy and the New Deal . In the 1940s and 1950s, public opinion of Hoover improved, largely due to his service in various assignments for Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower , including chairing

6660-662: The 19th Route Army ) that primarily led the offensive against the Japanese during the skirmish. Brought into the NRA immediately after the battle, the 19th Route Army's career under Chiang would be cut short by being disbanded for demonstrating socialist tendencies. In December 1936, Chiang flew to Xi'an to co-ordinate a major assault on the Red Army and the CPC, which had retreated into Yan'an . However, Chiang's allied commander Zhang Xueliang, whose forces were used in his attack and whose homeland of Manchuria had been recently invaded by

6840-781: The Canton Coup . The SS Yungfeng , renamed the Chung-shan in Sun's honour, had appeared off Changzhou , the location of the Whampoa Academy, on apparently-falsified orders and amid a series of unusual phone calls trying to ascertain Chiang's location. He initially considered fleeing Guangdong and even booked passage on a Japanese steamer but then decided to use his military connections to declare martial law on 20 March 1926 and to crack down on Communist and Soviet influence over

7020-728: The Chinese Red Army in 1934. The Communists, tipped off that a Nationalist offensive was imminent, retreated in the Long March during which Mao rose from a mere military official to the most influential leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Some academics and historians have classified Chiang's rule as fascist. The New Life Movement , initiated by Chiang, was based upon Confucianism mixed with Christianity, nationalism, and authoritarianism that have some similarities to fascism. Frederic Wakeman argued that

7200-595: The Depression of 1920–21 , he convinced Harding to assemble a presidential commission on unemployment, which encouraged local governments to engage in countercyclical infrastructure spending. He endorsed much of Mellon's tax reduction program but favored a more progressive tax system and opposed the treasury secretary's efforts to eliminate the estate tax . Between 1923 and 1929, the number of families with radios grew from 300,000 to 10 million, and Hoover's tenure as Secretary of Commerce heavily influenced radio use in

7380-579: The Japanese surrender . When the Second World War ended, the civil war with the Communists (led by Mao Zedong ) resumed; in 1949, Chiang's government was defeated and retreated to the island of Taiwan , where he imposed martial law and persecuted critics in the White Terror , which lasted until his death. Presiding over a period of economic reforms and prosperity , from 1948 Chiang won five elections to six-year terms as President of

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7560-654: The Manchu -dominated Ch‘ing dynasty unstable and in debt. Successive demands of the Western powers and Japan since the Opium War had left China owing millions of taels of silver. During his first visit to Japan to pursue a military career from April 1906 to later that year, he describes himself as having strong nationalistic feelings with a desire, among other things, to 'expel the Manchu Ch‘ing and to restore China'. In

7740-547: The Nanjing decade , various aspects of foreign imperialism, concessions and privileges in China were moderated by diplomacy. The government acted to modernize the legal and penal systems and attempted to stabilize prices, amortize debts, reform the banking and currency systems, build railroads and highways, improve public health facilities, legislate against traffic in narcotics, and augment industrial and agricultural production. Efforts were made to improve education standards, and

7920-565: The National Palace Museum in Taipei during the 1949 retreat . Like many other Chinese historical figures, Chiang used several names throughout his life. The name inscribed in the genealogical records of his family is Chiang Chou-t‘ai ( Chinese : 蔣周泰 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Zhōutài ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chou -t‘ai ). This so-called "register name" ( 譜名 ) is the one by which his extended relatives knew him, and

8100-773: The National Revolutionary Army (NRA) from 1926, and leader of the Republic of China (ROC) in mainland China from 1928. After Chiang was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, he continued to lead the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975. He was considered the legitimate head of China by the United Nations until 1971 . Born in Chekiang , Chiang received

8280-720: The North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow food shipments. He also convinced British Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George to allow individuals to send money to the people of Belgium, thereby lessening workload of the CRB. At the request of the French government, the CRB began delivering supplies to the people of German-occupied Northern France in 1915. American diplomat Walter Page described Hoover as "probably

8460-612: The Paris Peace Conference , Hoover served as a close adviser to President Wilson, and he largely shared Wilson's goals of establishing the League of Nations , settling borders on the basis of self-determination , and refraining from inflicting a harsh punishment on the defeated Central Powers. The following year, the famed British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in The Economic Consequences of

8640-426: The SS Yungfeng , where Chiang joined them as soon as he could return from Shanghai, where he was ritually mourning his mother's death. For about 50 days, Chiang stayed with Sun, protecting and caring for him and earning his lasting trust. They abandoned their attacks on Chen on 9 August, taking a British ship to Hong Kong and traveling to Shanghai by steamer. Sun regained control of Canton in early 1923, again with

8820-509: The Shanghai International Settlement police observed him and eventually charged him with various felonies. These charges never resulted in a trial, and Chiang was never jailed. Chiang became a founding member of the Nationalist Party (a forerunner of the KMT) after the success (February 1912) of the 1911 Revolution . After the takeover of the Republican government by Yuan Shikai and the failed Second Revolution in 1913, Chiang, like his KMT comrades, divided his time between exile in Japan and

9000-420: The United States Geological Survey ; these experiences convinced Hoover to pursue a career as a mining geologist. When Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895, the country was in the midst of the Panic of 1893 and he initially struggled to find a job. He worked in various low-level mining jobs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains until persuading prominent mining engineer Louis Janin to hire him. After working as

9180-468: The Western Hills Group , began to show soon after the cleansing against the communists, and Chiang later imprisoned Hu. Though Chiang had consolidated the power of the KMT in Nanjing, it was still necessary to capture Beijing to claim the legitimacy needed for international recognition. Beijing was taken in June 1928, from an alliance of the warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan . Yan Xishan moved in and captured Beiping on behalf of his new allegiance after

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9360-437: The Wuchang uprising , Chiang returned to China in 1911, intending to fight as an artillery officer. He served in the revolutionary forces, leading a regiment in Shanghai under his friend and mentor Chen Qimei , as one of Chen's chief lieutenants. In early 1912 a dispute arose between Chen and Tao Chengzhang , an influential member of the Revolutionary Alliance who opposed both Sun Yat-sen and Chen. Tao sought to avoid escalating

9540-633: The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Chinese Communists and many conservative anti-communist writers have argued that Chiang was pro-capitalist based on the alliance thesis (the alliance between Chiang and the capitalists to purge the communist and the leftist elements in Shanghai , as well as in the resulting civil war). However, Chiang also antagonized the capitalists of Shanghai by often attacking them and confiscating their capital and assets for government use even while he denounced and fought against communists. Critics have called that " bureaucratic capitalism ". Historian Parks M. Coble argues that

9720-490: The death of Zhang Zuolin in 1928. His successor, Zhang Xueliang , accepted the authority of the KMT leadership, and the Northern Expedition officially concluded, completing Chiang's nominal unification of China and ending the Warlord Era . After the Northern Expedition ended in 1928, Yan, Feng, Li Zongren and Zhang Fakui broke off relations with Chiang shortly after a demilitarization conference in 1929, and together they formed an anti-Chiang coalition to openly challenge

9900-421: The froth flotation process to extract zinc from lead-silver ore and operated the world's first selective ore differential flotation plant. Hoover worked with the Burma Corporation, a British firm that produced silver, lead, and zinc in large quantities at the Namtu Bawdwin Mine . He also helped increase copper production in Kyshtym , Russia , through the use of pyritic smelting. He also agreed to manage

10080-460: The history of science , and he was especially drawn to the De re metallica , an influential 16th century work on mining and metallurgy by Georgius Agricola . In 1912, Hoover and his wife published the first English translation of De re metallica . Hoover also joined the board of trustees at Stanford, and led a successful campaign to appoint John Branner as the university's president. During his senior year at Stanford, Hoover became smitten with

10260-404: The labour movement of the Australian miners. During his time with the mining company, Hoover became opposed to measures such as a minimum wage and workers' compensation , feeling that they were unfair to owners. Hoover's work impressed his employers, and in 1898 he was promoted to junior partner. An open feud developed between Hoover and his boss, Ernest Williams, but Bewick's leaders defused

10440-402: The "Okhrana", the Russo-Japanese War, and Russia's participation in World War I. Other special collections include the Hoover Institution/Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG)/Russian State Archival Service Cataloging Project and the Soviet Communist Party Archives Microfilming Project. Digitized audiovisual recordings and transcripts of more than 1,500 Firing Line episodes were contributed to

10620-468: The 1928 Electoral College and impacted the presidential election. Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and military commander who was the leader of the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party and commander-in-chief and Generalissimo of

10800-413: The 1928 Republican nomination, and he quickly put together a strong campaign team led by Hubert Work , Will H. Hays , and Reed Smoot . Coolidge was unwilling to anoint Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that, "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice—all of it bad". Despite his lukewarm feelings towards Hoover, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing

10980-413: The Allied Powers, preventing their collapse and earning Hoover great acclaim. As head of the Food Administration, Hoover gained a following in the United States, especially among progressives who saw in Hoover an expert administrator and symbol of efficiency. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society during his tenure. World War I came to an end in November 1918, but Europe continued to face

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11160-462: The American Archive of Public Broadcasting via external links from The Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University. The Hoover Institution hosts the Chiang Kai-shek diaries and the opening of the diaries for study has contributed to a surge in academic publishing China's Nationalist period. In 2021, it acquired Wang Jingwei 's personal papers. Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964)

11340-500: The Bolsheviks and feared the possibility of a protracted U.S. involvement. The Russian famine of 1921–22 claimed six million people, but the intervention of the ARA likely saved millions of lives. When asked if he was not helping Bolshevism by providing relief, Hoover stated, "twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!" Reflecting the gratitude of many Europeans, in July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky told Hoover that "your help will enter history as

11520-439: The British refused to lift their blockade of German-occupied Belgium unless the U.S. government supervised Belgian food imports as a neutral party in the war. With the cooperation of the Wilson administration and the CNSA , a Belgian relief organization, Hoover established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CNSA to distribute, and helped ensure that

11700-438: The Chinese government, the director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company agreed to establish a new Sino-British venture with Bewick. After they established effective control over the new Chinese mining company, Hoover became the operating partner in late 1901. In this role, Hoover continually traveled the world on behalf of Bewick, visiting mines operated by the company on different continents. Beginning in December 1902,

11880-434: The Comintern, but returned at Sun's demand, and accepted Chou En-lai as his political commissar. The early years at Whampoa allowed Chiang to cultivate a cadre of young officers loyal to both the KMT and himself. Throughout his rise to power, Chiang also benefited from membership within the nationalist Tien-ti-hui fraternity, to which Sun Yat-sen also belonged, and which remained a source of support during his leadership of

12060-409: The Communists and their Soviet advisers led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War . Wang Jingwei's National Government was weak militarily, and was soon ended by Chiang with the support of a local warlord ( Li Zongren of Guangxi ). Eventually, Wang and his leftist party surrendered to Chiang and joined him in Nanjing. However, the cracks between Chiang and Hu's traditionally Right-Wing KMT faction,

12240-419: The Dang Guo of the KMT. Any successes that the Nationalists achieved, however, were met with constant political and military upheavals. Many of the urban areas were now under the control of the KMT, but much of the countryside remained under the influence of weakened-but -undefeated warlords, landlords, and Communists. Chiang often resolved issues of warlord obstinacy through military action, but such action

12420-430: The Democrats or the Republicans . He initially sought to avoid committing to any party in the 1920 election, hoping that either of the two major parties would draft him for president at their national conventions. In March 1920, he changed strategy and declared himself a Republican; he was motivated in large part by the belief that the Democrats had little chance of winning. Despite his national renown, Hoover's service in

12600-401: The French Revolution to Cornell University in 1891. A full account of the founding of the Hoover Institution Library and Archives is provided by George H. Nash in "Herbert Hoover and Stanford University," published by the Hoover Institution Press in 1988. In February 1919, Congress established a new agency known as the American Relief Administration as a mechanism for the supply of food aid to

12780-453: The German army did not appropriate the food. Private donations and government grants supplied the majority of its $ 11-million-a-month budget, and the CRB became a veritable independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads. Hoover worked 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims. In an early form of shuttle diplomacy , he crossed

12960-551: The Germans did control nearly all of Belgium for the entire war. Hoover and other London-based American businessmen established a committee to organize the return of the roughly 100,000 Americans stranded in Europe. Hoover was appointed as the committee's chairman and, with the assent of Congress and the Wilson administration , took charge of the distribution of relief to Americans in Europe. Hoover later stated, "I did not realize it at

13140-511: The Harding administration. Hoover envisioned the Commerce Department as the hub of the nation's growth and stability. His experience mobilizing the war-time economy convinced him that the federal government could promote efficiency by eliminating waste, increasing production, encouraging the adoption of data-based practices, investing in infrastructure, and conserving natural resources. Contemporaries described Hoover's approach as

13320-584: The Home Modernizing Bureau. He worked with bankers and the savings and loan industry to promote the new long-term home mortgage, which dramatically stimulated home construction. Other accomplishments included winning the agreement of U.S. Steel to adopt an eight-hour workday, and the fostering of the Colorado River Compact , a water rights compact among Southwestern states . The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke

13500-540: The Hoovers began living in the United States, maintaining homes in Stanford, California , and Washington, D.C. Hoover's great-grandaughter (through Allan) is conservative political commentator, strategist, media personality and author Margaret Hoover . Hoover's elder brother Theodore also studied mining engineering at Stanford, and returned there to become dean of the engineering school. In retirement, Theodore bought

13680-468: The Japanese, did not support the attack on the Communists. On 12 December, Zhang and several other Nationalist generals, headed by Yang Hucheng of Shaanxi kidnapped Chiang for two weeks in what is known as the Xi'an Incident . They forced Chiang into making a " Second United Front " with the Communists against Japan. After releasing Chiang and returning to Nanjing with him, Zhang was placed under house arrest, and

13860-464: The KMT, and Canton Governor Chen Chiung-ming , who wanted to implement a federalist system with Canton as a model province. On 16 June 1922 Ye Ju , a general of Chen's whom Sun had attempted to exile, led an assault on Canton's Presidential Palace . Sun had already fled to the naval yard and boarded the SS Haichi , but his wife narrowly evaded shelling and rifle-fire as she fled. They met on

14040-462: The Kuomintang. Sun Yat-sen died on 12 March 1925, creating a power vacuum in the Kuomintang. A contest ensued among Wang Ching-wei , Liao Chung-k‘ai , and Hu Han-min . In August, Liao was assassinated and Hu was arrested for his connections to the murderers. Wang Ching-wei , who had succeeded Sun as chairman of the Canton regime, seemed ascendant but was forced into exile by Chiang following

14220-555: The National Revolutionary Army, the military academy, and the party. The right wing of the party supported him, and Joseph Stalin , anxious to maintain Soviet influence in the area, had his lieutenants agree to Chiang's demands on a reduced Communist presence in the KMT leadership in exchange for certain other concessions. The rapid replacement of leadership enabled Chiang to effectively end civilian oversight of

14400-463: The Nationalist government but soon realized the widespread corruption. Military supplies that were sent appeared on the black market. Significant sums of money that had been transmitted through T. V. Soong, China's finance minister, soon disappeared. President Truman famously referred to the Nationalist leaders, "They're thieves, every damn one of them." He also said, "They stole $ 750 million out of

14580-517: The Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang. All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval. According to historian Odd Arne Westad , "no other leader within the [KMT] had the authority to force through even the simplest decisions. The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with

14760-858: The New Life Movement was " Confucian fascism ". Chiang also sponsored the creation of the Blue Shirts Society , in conscious imitation of the Blackshirts in the Italian Fascist Party and the Sturmabteilung of the Nazi Party. Its ideology was to expel foreign (Japanese and Western) imperialists from China and to crush communism. Close ties with Nazi Germany also gave the Nationalist government access to German military and economic assistance during

14940-660: The Peace that if Hoover's realism, "knowledge, magnanimity and disinterestedness" had found wider play in the councils of Paris, the world would have had "the Good Peace". After U.S. government funding for the ARA expired in mid-1919, Hoover transformed the ARA into a private organization, raising millions of dollars from private donors. He also established the European Children's Fund, which provided relief to fifteen million children across fourteen countries. Despite

15120-520: The ROC in which he faced minimal opposition or was elected unopposed. He was also Director-General of the KMT until his death in 1975, and was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo , who became president in 1978. Like Mao, Chiang is a controversial figure. Supporters credit him with unifying the nation and ending the Century of Humiliation , leading the resistance against Japan, and economic development in mainland China and Taiwan. Critics portray him as

15300-471: The Senate and from radio station owners. Hoover was also influential in the early development of air travel, and he sought to create a thriving private industry boosted by indirect government subsidies. He encouraged the development of emergency landing fields, required all runways to be equipped with lights and radio beams, and encouraged farmers to make use of planes for crop dusting . He also established

15480-477: The Senate. Hoover would serve as Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1928, serving under Harding and, after Harding's death in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge . While some of the most prominent members of the Harding administration, including Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall , were implicated in major scandals , Hoover emerged largely unscathed from investigations into

15660-478: The South, Hoover and the national party pursued a " lily-white " strategy, removing black Republicans from leadership positions in an attempt to curry favor with white Southerners. Hoover maintained polling leads throughout the 1928 campaign, and he decisively defeated Smith on election day, taking 58 percent of the popular vote and 444 of the 531 electoral votes. Historians agree that Hoover's national reputation and

15840-594: The United States for their wedding. They would remain married until Lou Henry Hoover's death in 1944. Hoover was the first president to be a widower since Woodrow Wilson . Though his Quaker upbringing strongly influenced his career, Hoover rarely attended Quaker meetings during his adult life. Hoover and his wife had two children: Herbert Hoover Jr. (born in 1903) and Allan Henry Hoover (born in 1907). The Hoover family began living in London in 1902, though they frequently traveled as part of Hoover's career. After 1916,

16020-500: The United States. In the early and mid-1920s, Hoover's radio conferences played a key role in the organization, development, and regulation of radio broadcasting . Hoover also helped pass the Radio Act of 1927 , which allowed the government to intervene and abolish radio stations that were deemed "non-useful" to the public. Hoover's attempts at regulating radio were not supported by all congressmen, and he received much opposition from

16200-634: The Wilson administration had alienated farmers and the conservative Old Guard of the GOP , and his presidential candidacy fizzled out after his defeat in the California primary by favorite son Hiram Johnson . At the 1920 Republican National Convention , Warren G. Harding emerged as a compromise candidate after the convention became deadlocked between supporters of Johnson, Leonard Wood , and Frank Orren Lowden . Hoover backed Harding's successful campaign in

16380-545: The abolition of polygamy and foot binding . Under Chiang's leadership, the Republic of China government also enacted a women's quota in the parliament, with reserved seats for women. During the Nanjing Decade, average Chinese citizens received education that they had been denied by the dynasties. That increased the literacy rate across China and also promoted the ideals of Tridemism of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, and Chinese nationalism based on

16560-404: The age of 34 of a sudden heart attack. Hoover's mother died in 1884 of typhoid , leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans. Hoover lived the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm. In November 1885, Hoover was sent to Newberg, Oregon , to live with his uncle John Minthorn, a Quaker physician and businessman whose own son had died

16740-577: The age of thirteen to become an office assistant for his uncle's real estate office (Oregon Land Company) in Salem, Oregon . Though he did not attend high school, Hoover learned bookkeeping, typing, and mathematics at a night school. Hoover was a member of the inaugural "Pioneer Class" of Stanford University , entering in 1891 despite failing all the entrance exams except mathematics. During his freshman year, he switched his major from mechanical engineering to geology after working for John Casper Branner ,

16920-568: The agency leadership— Alonzo E. Taylor (technical abilities), Robert Taft (political associations), Gifford Pinchot (agricultural influence), and Julius Barnes (business acumen). World War I had created a global food crisis that dramatically increased food prices and caused food riots and starvation in the countries at war. Hoover's chief goal as food czar was to provide supplies to the Allied Powers, but he also sought to stabilize domestic prices and to prevent domestic shortages. Under

17100-600: The amount of crude oil spilled during extraction and shipping. He promoted international trade by opening overseas offices to advise businessmen. Hoover was especially eager to promote Hollywood films overseas. His "Own Your Own Home" campaign was a collaboration to promote ownership of single-family dwellings, with groups such as the Better Houses in America movement, the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, and

17280-408: The anti-capitalist rhetoric of Sun Yat-sen and directed the Kuomintang media to attack the capitalists and capitalism openly. He supported government-controlled industries instead. Coble says that the rhetoric had no impact on governmental policy and that its use was to prevent the capitalists from claiming legitimacy within the party or society and to control them and their wealth. Authority within

17460-543: The banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in the flooding of millions of acres and leaving 1.5 million people displaced from their homes. Although disaster response did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department , the governors of six states along the Mississippi River specifically asked President Coolidge to appoint Hoover to coordinate the response to

17640-531: The billions that we sent to Chiang. They stole it, and it's invested in real estate down in São Paolo and some right here in New York." Soong Mei-ling and Soong Ai-ling lived luxurious lifestyles and held millions in property, clothes, art, and jewelry. Soong Ai-ling and Soong Mei-ling were also the two richest women in China. Despite living a luxurious life for almost her entire life, Soong Mei-ling left only

17820-466: The booming economy, combined with deep splits in the Democratic Party over religion and Prohibition, guaranteed his landslide victory. Hoover's appeal to Southern white voters succeeded in cracking the " Solid South ", and he won five Southern states. Hoover's victory was positively received by newspapers; one wrote that Hoover would "drive so forcefully at the tasks now before the nation that

18000-714: The broad powers granted by the Food and Fuel Control Act , the Food Administration supervised food production throughout the United States, and the administration made use of its authority to buy, import, store, and sell food. Determined to avoid rationing, Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays , wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". These policies were dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists, in spite of Hoover's continual orders that publicity should not mention him by name. The Food Administration shipped 23 million metric tons of food to

18180-427: The chairman of Stanford's geology department. During his sophomore year, Sam Collins proposed founding, Romero Hall Boarding Club , the first student cooperative boarding house at Romero Hall, for "sociability and economy", which Hoover and William Foster Hidden co-founded. Hoover was a mediocre student, and he spent much of his time working in various part-time jobs or participating in campus activities. Though he

18360-437: The collection systematically. The current holdings include 6,000 separate collections that encompass an estimated 50 million original documents. As of July 2013, the director of the library and archives is Eric Wakin. The archive is a valuable resource for the following subjects related to Russia: the rise of political parties, Imperial Russian diplomatic archives, the revolutionary movement, Asiatic Russia and its colonization,

18540-549: The collection. The documents were initially housed within the main Stanford Library, but by 1929 the collection had reached 1.4 million items and space was becoming a problem. In 1941 Hoover Tower was completed as a repository for the growing collection, which was eventually named the Hoover Institution and Library on War, Revolution and Peace . Staff members in subsequent decades have continued to expand

18720-618: The company faced mounting legal and financial issues after one of the partners admitted to having fraudulently sold stock in a mine. More issues arose in 1904 after the British government formed two separate royal commissions to investigate Bewick's labor practices and financial dealings in Western Australia. After the company lost a lawsuit Hoover began looking for a way to get out of the partnership, and he sold his shares in mid-1908. After leaving Bewick, Moreing, Hoover worked as

18900-412: The conferences grew and soon embraced motor vehicle standards, rules of the road, and urban traffic control. He left the invited interest groups to negotiate agreements among themselves, which were then presented for adoption by states and localities. Because automotive trade associations were the best organized, many of the positions taken by the conferences reflected their interests. The conferences issued

19080-488: The course of the 1930s and the 1940s when the Nationalist government's revenues were less than $ 30 million per year. The Soong family's eldest son, T.V. Soong , was the Chinese premier and finance minister, and the eldest daughter, Soong Ai-ling , was the wife of Kung Hsiang-hsi , the wealthiest man in China. The second daughter, Soong Ching-ling , was the wife of Sun Yat-sen, China's founding father. The youngest daughter, Soong Mei-ling, married Chiang in 1927, and following

19260-576: The depression was widely seen as lackluster and he scapegoated Mexican Americans for the economic crisis. Approximately one million Mexican Americans were forcibly "repatriated" to Mexico in a forced migration campaign known as the Mexican Repatriation even though a majority of them were born in the United States. In the midst of the Great Depression, he was decisively defeated by Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in

19440-582: The documents. The collection was called the Hoover War Collection and later the Hoover War Library. In August 1920 the first permanent curator of the collection, Frank A. Golder , headed a team which traveled across Europe to acquire materials. A massive number of books, pamphlets, documents, and posters were acquired, crated, and shipped back to California on behalf of the project. By 1923 more than 40,000 items had been obtained for

19620-701: The edge of the Great Victoria Desert as a land of "black flies, red dust and white heat". Hoover traveled constantly across the Outback to evaluate and manage the company's mines. He convinced Bewick to purchase the Sons of Gwalia gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region. Partly due to Hoover's efforts, the company eventually controlled approximately 50 percent of gold production in Western Australia . Hoover brought in many Italian immigrants to cut costs and counter

19800-425: The end of his eight years as president will find us looking back on an era of prodigious achievement". Hoover's detractors wondered why he did not do anything to reapportion congress after the 1920 United States census which saw an increase in urban and immigrant populations. The 1920 census was the first and only decennial census where the results were not used to reapportion Congress, which ultimately influenced

19980-414: The exiled Chinese Revolutionary Party. In 1917, Sun Yat-sen moved his base of operations to Canton, where Chiang joined him in 1918. At this time Sun remained largely sidelined; without arms or money, he was soon expelled from the city and exiled again to Shanghai, only to return to Canton with mercenary help in 1920. After his return, a rift developed between Sun, who sought to militarily unify China under

20160-470: The federal government's power to inspect planes and license pilots, setting a precedent for the later Federal Aviation Administration . As Commerce Secretary, Hoover hosted national conferences on street traffic collectively known as the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety. Hoover's chief objective was to address the growing casualty toll of traffic accidents , but the scope of

20340-449: The first volume his memoirs, published in 1951, Hoover wrote: I did a vast amount of reading, mostly on previous wars, revolutions, and peace-makings of Europe and especially the political and economic aftermaths. At one time I set up some research at London, Paris, and Berlin into previous famines in Europe to see if there had developed any ideas on handling relief and pestilence. ... I was shortly convinced that gigantic famine would follow

20520-434: The flood crisis, by 1928, Hoover had begun to overshadow President Coolidge himself. Though Hoover received wide acclaim for his role in the crisis, he ordered the suppression of reports of mistreatment of African Americans in refugee camps . He did so with the cooperation of black American leader Robert Russa Moton , who was promised unprecedented influence once Hoover became president. Hoover quietly gathered support for

20700-463: The flood. Believing that disaster response was not the domain of the federal government, Coolidge initially refused to become involved, but he eventually acceded to political pressure and appointed Hoover to chair a special committee to help the region. Hoover established over one hundred tent cities and a fleet of more than six hundred vessels and raised $ 17 million (equivalent to $ 298.18 million in 2023). In large part due to his leadership during

20880-589: The foreign great powers with suspicion, wrote in a letter that they "all have it in their minds to promote the interests of their own respective countries at the cost of other nations" and saw it as hypocritical for any of them to condemn one another's foreign policy. He used diplomatic persuasion on the United States, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union to regain lost Chinese territories, as he viewed all foreign powers as imperialists that were attempting to exploit China. During April 1931, Chiang Kai-shek attended

21060-470: The formal authority of their position. Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off against each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority. Contrary to the critique that Chiang was highly corrupt, he was not involved in corruption himself. However his wife, Soong Mei-ling, ignored her family's involvement in corruption. The Soong family embezzled $ 20 million in

21240-521: The general election, and he began laying the groundwork for a future presidential run by building a base of strong supporters in the Republican Party. After his election as president in 1920, Harding rewarded Hoover for his support, offering to appoint him as either Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Commerce . Secretary of Commerce was considered a minor Cabinet post, with limited and vaguely defined responsibilities, but Hoover decided to accept

21420-505: The generals who had assisted him were executed. The Second United Front had a commitment by Chiang that was nominal at best and was all but dissolved in 1941. The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, and in August, Chiang sent 600,000 of his best-trained and equipped soldiers to defend Shanghai . With over 200,000 Chinese casualties, Chiang lost the political cream of his Whampoa -trained officers. Although Chiang lost militarily,

21600-434: The government. He created many sub-departments and committees, overseeing and regulating everything from manufacturing statistics to air travel . In some instances, he "seized" control of responsibilities from other Cabinet departments when he deemed that they were not carrying out their responsibilities well; some began referring to him as the "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments". In response to

21780-662: The havens of the Shanghai International Settlement . In Shanghai, Chiang cultivated ties with the city's underworld gangs, which were dominated by the notorious Green Gang and its leader Du Yuesheng. On 18 May 1916 agents of Yuan Shikai assassinated Chen Qimei. Chiang then succeeded Chen as leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Shanghai. Sun Yat-sen's political career reached its lowest point during this time—most of his old Revolutionary Alliance comrades refused to join him in

21960-537: The help of mercenaries from Yunnan and of the Comintern . Undertaking a reform of the KMT, he established a revolutionary government aimed at unifying China under the KMT. That same year Sun sent Chiang to Moscow, where he spent three months studying the Soviet political and military system. There Chiang met Leon Trotsky and other Soviet leaders, but quickly came to the conclusion that the Russian model of government

22140-447: The hungry people of post-war Europe. Herbert Hoover was tapped by President Woodrow Wilson to head this agency, and the records of this great enterprise were also incorporated into Hoover's archival holdings. The initial holdings documented the end of World War I and the peace conference at the end of the war. Starting in 1919, Hoover donated the collected materials to Stanford, his alma mater, along with funds to maintain and develop

22320-576: The influence of compatriots to support the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Manchu -dominated Qing dynasty and to set up a Han -dominated Chinese republic. He befriended Chen Qimei , and in 1908 Chen brought Chiang into the Tungmenghui , an important revolutionary brotherhood of the era. Finishing his military schooling at Tokyo Shinbu Gakko, Chiang served in the Imperial Japanese Army from 1909 to 1911. After learning of

22500-567: The influential Hoover Commission . Critical assessments of his presidency by historians and political scientists generally rank him as a significantly below-average president, although Hoover has received praise for his actions as a humanitarian and public official. Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa . His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner of German, Swiss, and English ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn,

22680-618: The issues that surrounded him and in his speech to the Kuomintang in 1945 said: As you all know I was an orphan boy in a poor family. Deprived of any protection after the death of her husband, my mother was exposed to the most ruthless exploitation by neighbouring ruffians and the local gentry. The efforts she made in fighting against the intrigues of these family intruders certainly endowed her child, brought up in such an environment, with an indomitable spirit to fight for justice. I felt throughout my childhood that my mother and I were fighting

22860-632: The legitimacy of the Nanjing government. In the Central Plains War , they were defeated. Chiang made great efforts to gain recognition as the official successor of Sun Yat-sen. In a pairing of great political significance, Chiang was Sun's brother-in-law. He had married Soong Mei-ling , the younger sister of Soong Ching-ling , Sun's widow, on 1 December 1927. Originally rebuffed in the early 1920s, Chiang managed to ingratiate himself to some degree with Soong Mei-ling's mother by first divorcing his wife and concubines and promising to sincerely study

23040-515: The local governments in the towns and villages since the early 1930s. However, the policy was subsequently neglected and canceled by Chiang's government because of rampant wars and the lack of resources after the Japanese War and the civil war. Despite being a conservative, Chiang supported modernization policies such as scientific advancement, universal education, and women's rights. The Kuomintang supported women's suffrage and education and

23220-457: The lot of the Chinese worker, seeking to end the practice of imposing long-term servitude contracts and to institute reforms for workers based on merit. The Boxer Rebellion broke out shortly after the Hoovers arrived in China, trapping them and numerous other foreign nationals until a multi-national military force defeated Boxer forces in the Battle of Tientsin . Fearing the imminent collapse of

23400-405: The marriage, both families became intimately connected, which created the "Soong dynasty" and the "Four Families". However, Soong was also credited for her campaign for women's rights in China, including her attempts to improve the education, culture, and social benefits of Chinese women. Critics have said that the "Four Families" monopolized the regime and looted it. The US sent considerable aid to

23580-429: The meantime, they used a " milk name " ( 乳名 ), given to the infant shortly after his birth and known only to the close family. So the name that Chiang received at birth was Chiang Jui-yüan ( Chinese : 蔣瑞元 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Ruìyuán ). In 1903, the 16-year-old Chiang went to Ningbo as a student, and chose a " school name " ( 學名 ). This was the formal name of a person, used by older people to address him, and

23760-538: The mid-1930s. In a 1935 speech, Chiang stated that "fascism is what China now most needs" and described fascism as the stimulant for a declining society. Mao once derogatorily compared Chiang to Adolf Hitler, referring to him as the "Führer of China". Sino-German relations rapidly deteriorated as Germany grew closer to Japan and almost completely broke down when Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937, which Germany failed to mediate. However, China did not declare war on Germany, Italy, or even Japan until after

23940-438: The military after 15 May, though his authority was somewhat limited by the army's own regional composition and divided loyalties. On 5 June 1926, he was named commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army [NRA] and, on 27 July, he finally launched Sun's long-delayed Northern Expedition , aimed at conquering the northern warlords and bringing China together under the KMT. The NRA branched into three divisions: to

24120-427: The moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life." By early October 1914, Hoover's organization had distributed relief to at least 40,000 Americans. The German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 set off a food crisis in Belgium, which relied heavily on food imports. The Germans refused to take responsibility for feeding Belgian citizens in captured territory, and

24300-472: The mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street. Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church. As a child, Hoover consistently attended schools, but he did little reading on his own aside from the Bible. Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at

24480-411: The name Chung-cheng, he was choosing a name very similar to the name of Sun Yat-sen, who is known among Chinese as Chung-shan ( 中山 —meaning "central mountain"), thus establishing a link between the two. The meaning of uprightness, rectitude, or orthodoxy, implied by his name, also positioned him as the legitimate heir of Sun Yat-sen and his ideas. It was readily accepted by members of the Kuomintang , and

24660-455: The nation's food needs during the war. Hoover had hoped to join the administration in some capacity since at least 1916, and he obtained the position after lobbying several members of Congress and Wilson's confidant, Edward M. House . Earning the appellation of "food czar", Hoover recruited a volunteer force of hundreds of thousands of women and deployed propaganda in movie theaters, schools, and churches. He carefully selected men to assist in

24840-468: The national academy of sciences, Academia Sinica , was founded. In an effort to unify Chinese society, the New Life Movement was launched to encourage Confucian moral values and personal discipline. Guoyu ("national language") was promoted as the official language, and the establishment of communications facilities (including radio) was used to encourage a sense of Chinese nationalism in

25020-422: The national government as having moved to Wuhan. In 1927, when he was setting up the Nationalist government in Nanjing, he was preoccupied with "the elevation of our leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the rank of 'Father of our Chinese Republic'. Dr. Sun worked for 40 years to lead our people in the Nationalist cause, and we cannot allow any other personality to usurp this honored position". He asked Chen Guofu to purchase

25200-574: The negative at any price. They must be destroyed as soon as possible. It would be embarrassing to have our Father of the Chinese Republic shown in a subordinate position". On 12 April 1927, Chiang carried out a purge of thousands of suspected Communists and dissidents in Shanghai, and began large-scale massacres across the country collectively known as the "White Terror" . During April, more than 12,000 people were killed in Shanghai. The killings drove most Communists from urban cities and into

25380-606: The new capital of Nanjing to be enshrined in a mausoleum, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum . In the West and in the Soviet Union, Chiang Kai-shek was known as the "Red General". Movie theaters in the Soviet Union showed newsreels and clips of Chiang. At Moscow, Sun Yat-sen University portraits of Chiang were hung on the walls; and, in the Soviet May Day parades that year, Chiang's portrait was to be carried along with

25560-519: The next fifteen years or so, Chiang was known as Chiang Chih-ch‘ing Chinese : 蔣志清 ; pinyin : Jiang Zhīqīng ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chih -ch‘ing . This is the name by which Sun Yat-sen knew him when Chiang joined the republicans in Kwangtung in the 1910s. In 1912, when Chiang was in Japan, he started to use the name Chiang Kai-shek ( Chinese : 蔣介石 ; pinyin : Jiǎng Jièshí ; Wade–Giles : Chiang Chieh -shih ) as

25740-459: The one he used in formal occasions, such as when he was married. In deference to tradition, family members did not use the register name in conversation with people outside of the family. The concept of a "real" or original name is/was not as clear-cut in China as it is in the Western world. In honor of tradition, Chinese families waited a number of years before officially naming their children. In

25920-463: The one he would use the most in the first decades of his life (as a person grew older, younger generations would use one of the courtesy names instead). Colloquially, the school name is called "big name" ( 大名 ), whereas the "milk name" is known as the "small name" ( 小名 ). The school name that Chiang chose for himself was Chih-ch‘ing ( Chinese : 志清 ; pinyin : Zhīqīng ; Wade–Giles : Chih-ch‘ing , which means "purity of aspirations"). For

26100-453: The only man living who has privately (i.e., without holding office) negotiated understandings with the British, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian governments". War upon Germany was declared in April 1917, and American food was essential to Allied victory. With the U.S. mobilizing for war, President Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration , which was charged with ensuring

26280-586: The opposition of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans, Hoover provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to famine -stricken Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic . Hoover condemned the Bolsheviks but warned President Wilson against an intervention in the Russian Civil War , as he viewed the White Russian forces as little better than

26460-521: The phrase "bureaucratic capitalism" is too simplistic to adequately characterize this phenomenon. Instead, he says, the regime weakened all social forces so that the government could pursue policies without being responsible nor responsive to any outside political groups. By defeating any potential challenge to its power, government officials could amass sizable fortunes. With that motive, Chiang cracked down pro-communist worker and peasant organizations, as well as rich Shanghai capitalists. Chiang also continued

26640-399: The popular Commerce Secretary's candidacy. Many wary Republican leaders cast about for an alternative candidate, such as Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon or former secretary of state Charles Evans Hughes . However, Hughes and Mellon declined to run, and other potential contenders like Frank Orren Lowden and Vice President Charles G. Dawes failed to garner widespread support. Hoover won

26820-548: The portraits of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and other Communist leaders. The United States consulate and other Westerners in Shanghai were concerned about the approach of "Red General" Chiang as his army was seizing control of large areas of the country in the Northern Expedition. Having gained control of China, Chiang's party remained surrounded by defeated warlords who remained relatively autonomous within their own regions. On 10 October 1928, Chiang

27000-476: The position. Hoover's progressive stances, continuing support for the League of Nations , and recent conversion to the Republican Party aroused opposition to his appointment from many Senate Republicans . To overcome this opposition, Harding paired Hoover's nomination with that of conservative favorite Andrew Mellon as Secretary of the Treasury , and the nominations of both Hoover and Mellon were confirmed by

27180-603: The precepts of Christianity. He read the copy of the Bible that May-ling had given him twice before making up his mind to become a Christian, and three years after his marriage he was baptized in the Soong's Methodist church. Although some observers felt that he adopted Christianity as a political move, studies of his recently opened diaries suggest that his faith was strong and sincere and that he felt that Christianity reinforced Confucian moral teachings. Upon reaching Beijing, Chiang paid homage to Sun Yat-sen and had his body moved to

27360-642: The present war. The steady degeneration of agriculture was obvious. ... I read in one of Andrew D. White's writings that most of the fugitive literature of comment during the French Revolution was lost to history because no one set any value on it at the time, and that without such material it became very difficult or impossible to reconstruct the real scene. Therein lay the origins of the Library on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. Andrew D. White donated his vast collection of ephemera from

27540-418: The presidential nomination on the first ballot of the 1928 Republican National Convention . Convention delegates considered re-nominating Vice President Charles Dawes to be Hoover's running mate , but Coolidge, who hated Dawes, remarked that this would be "a personal affront" to him. The convention instead selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas. Hoover accepted the nomination at Stanford Stadium , telling

27720-510: The purge. The NRA formed by the KMT swept through southern and central China until it was checked in Shandong , where confrontations with the Japanese garrison escalated into armed conflict. The conflicts were collectively known as the Jinan incident of 1928. Now with an established national government in Nanjing, and supported by conservative allies including Hu Hanmin, Chiang's expulsion of

27900-590: The quarrel by hiding in a hospital, but Chiang discovered him there. Chen dispatched assassins. Chiang may not have taken part in the assassination, but would later assume responsibility to help Chen avoid trouble. Chen valued Chiang despite Chiang's already legendary temper, regarding such bellicosity as useful in a military leader. Chiang's friendship with Chen Qimei signaled an association with Shanghai's criminal syndicate (the Green Gang headed by Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong ). During Chiang's time in Shanghai,

28080-606: The records of the organization he directed, the Commission for Relief in Belgium . Hoover accepted this task and began assembling the mass of books , posters , and documents which would become the foundation of the so-called "Hoover War Collection"—earliest incarnation of the Hoover Institution Library and Archives. Hoover also later recounted that he was further driven in the task of systematic archiving by his own wartime research as food administrator. In

28260-682: The rural countryside, where the KMT was less powerful. In the year after April 1927, over 300,000 people died across China in the anti-communist suppression campaigns, executed by the KMT. One of the most famous quotes from Chiang (during that time) was, that he would rather mistakenly kill 1,000 innocent people, than allow one Communist to escape. Some estimates claim the White Terror in China took millions of lives, most of them in rural areas. No concrete number can be verified. Chiang allowed Soviet agent and advisor Mikhail Borodin and Soviet general Vasily Blücher (Galens) to "escape" to safety after

28440-587: The situation by offering Hoover a compelling position in China . Upon arriving in China, Hoover developed gold mines near Tianjin on behalf of Bewick and the Chinese-owned Chinese Engineering and Mining Company . He became deeply interested in Chinese history , but gave up on learning the language to a fluent level . He publicly warned that Chinese workers were inefficient and racially inferior. He made recommendations to improve

28620-574: The spirit of public sanitation that Japan had. Chiang decided to pursue a military career. He began his military training at the Baoding Military Academy in 1906, the same year Japan left its bimetallic currency standard, devaluing the Japanese yen . He left for Tokyo Shinbu Gakko , a preparatory school for the Imperial Japanese Army Academy intended for Chinese students, in 1907. There, he came under

28800-547: The starving millions in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Russia. Hoover's wartime service made him a favorite of many progressives , and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 1920 U.S. presidential election . Hoover served as the secretary of commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge . Hoover was an unusually active and visible Cabinet member, becoming known as "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments." He

28980-475: The supply. Their plan was to drastically cut back on output from British Malaya , which had the effect of tripling rubber prices. Hoover energetically gave a series of speeches and interviews denouncing the monopolistic practice and demanding that it be ended. The American State Department wanted no such crisis and compromised the issue in 1926. By then Hoover had solved his image problem, and during his 1928 campaign he successfully squelched attacks that alleged he

29160-654: The war and the revolutions that followed it. The collection was renamed the Hoover War Library in 1922 and is now known as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives . During the post-war period, Hoover also served as the president of the Federated American Engineering Societies. Hoover had been little known among the American public before 1914, but his service in the Wilson administration established him as

29340-474: The west was the returned Wang Jingwei, who led a column to take Wuhan ; Bai Chongxi 's column went east to take Shanghai; Chiang himself led in the middle route, planning to take Nanjing before pressing ahead to capture Beijing . However, in January 1927, Wang Jingwei and his KMT leftist allies took the city of Wuhan amid much popular mobilization and fanfare. Allied with a number of Chinese Communists and advised by Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin , Wang declared

29520-473: The widespread problems that corruption was creating and so he undertook several anti-corruption campaigns before and after World War II with varying success. Before the war, both campaigns, the Nanjing Decade Cleanup of 1927–1930 and the Wartime Reform Movement of 1944–1947, failed. After the World War II and the Civil War, both campaigns, the Kuomintang Reconstruction of 1950–1952 and the Governmental Rejuvenation of 1969–1973, succeeded. Chiang, who viewed all of

29700-414: The world's troubles, such as famine in Belgium, as well as specific American problems which he had solved as food commissioner during the world war. The third solution to was to fall back on that old tactic of twisting the British tail. He employed that solution in 1925–1926 in the worldwide rubber crisis. The American auto industry consumed 70% of the world's output, but British investors controlled much of

29880-519: The year before. The Minthorn household was considered cultured and educational, and imparted a strong work ethic. Much like West Branch, Newberg was a frontier town settled largely by Midwestern Quakers. Minthorn ensured that Hoover received an education, but Hoover disliked the many chores assigned to him and often resented Minthorn. One observer described Hoover as "an orphan [who] seemed to be neglected in many ways". Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University ), but dropped out at

30060-416: Was a native Wu speaker ) became known by Westerners under the Cantonese romanisation of his courtesy name, while the family name as known in English seems to be the Mandarin pronunciation of his Chinese family name, transliterated in Wade–Giles. "Kai-shek" soon became Chiang's courtesy name ( 字 ). Some think the name was chosen from the classic Chinese book the I Ching ; "介于石" ; '[he who is] firm as

30240-409: Was a risk that he would be labeled a British tool. There were three solutions, all of which he tried in close collaboration with the media, which greatly admired him. First came the image of the dispassionate scientist, emotionally uninvolved but always committed to finding and implementing the best possible solution. The second solution was to gain the reputation of a humanitarian, deeply concerned with

30420-419: Was costly in terms of men and material. The Central Plains War alone nearly bankrupted the Nationalist government and caused almost 250,000 casualties on both sides. In 1931, Hu Hanmin, an old supporter of Chiang, publicly voiced a popular concern that Chiang's position as both premier and president flew in the face of the democratic ideals of the Nationalist government. Chiang had Hu put under house arrest, but Hu

30600-462: Was dominated by the Great Depression , and his policies and methods to combat it were seen as lackluster. Amid his unpopularity, he decisively lost reelection to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 . Born to a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa , Hoover grew up in Oregon . He was one of the first graduates of the new Stanford University in 1895. Hoover took a position with a London-based mining company working in Australia and China. He rapidly became

30780-485: Was influential in the development of air travel and radio. Hoover led the federal response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 . He won the Republican nomination in the 1928 presidential election and defeated Democratic candidate Al Smith in a landslide. In 1929, Hoover assumed the presidency. However, during his first year in office, the stock market crashed , signaling the onset of the Great Depression, which dominated Hoover's presidency until its end. His response to

30960-427: Was initially shy among fellow students, Hoover won election as student treasurer and became known for his distaste for fraternities and sororities . He served as student manager of both the baseball and football teams , and helped organize the inaugural Big Game versus the University of California . During the summers before and after his senior year, Hoover interned under economic geologist Waldemar Lindgren of

31140-406: Was named "Chung Cheng Memorial Hall" in Chinese. In Singapore, Chung Cheng High School was named after him. His name is also written in the free area of the Republic of China as "The Late President Honorable Chiang" ( 先總統 蔣公 ), where the one-character-wide space in front of his name known as Nuo tai shows respect. He is often called Honorable Chiang . The "Chiang Kai-shek" in this article

31320-410: Was named director of the State Council, the equivalent to President of the country, in addition to his other titles. As with his predecessor Sun Yat-sen, the Western media dubbed him "generalissimo". According to Sun Yat-sen's plans, the KMT was to rebuild China in three steps: military rule , political tutelage , and constitutional rule . The ultimate goal of the KMT revolution was democracy, which

31500-409: Was not considered to be feasible in China's fragmented state. Since the KMT had completed the first step of revolution through seizure of power in 1928, Chiang's rule thus began a period of what his party considered to be "political tutelage" in Sun Yat-sen's name. During this so-called Republican Era, many features of a modern, functional Chinese state emerged and developed. From 1928 to 1937, known as

31680-512: Was not suitable for China. Chiang later sent his eldest son, Chiang Ching-Kuo , to study in Russia. After his father's split from the First United Front in 1927, Ching-Kuo was retained there, as a hostage until 1937. Chiang wrote in his diary, "It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son." When Chiang returned in 1924 Sun appointed him Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy . Chiang resigned after one month in disagreement with Sun's close cooperation with

31860-415: Was raised in Norwich, Ontario , Canada, before moving to Iowa in 1859. Like most other citizens of West Branch, Jesse and Hulda were Quakers . Around age two "Bertie", as he was called during that time, contracted a serious bout of croup , and was momentarily thought to have died until resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn. As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in

32040-573: Was released after national condemnation. Hu then left Nanjing and supported a rival government in Canton. The split resulted in a military conflict between Hu's Guangdong government and Chiang's Nationalist government. Throughout his rule, complete eradication of the Communists remained Chiang's dream. After he had assembled his forces in Jiangxi , Chiang led his armies against the newly established Chinese Soviet Republic . With help from foreign military advisers such as Max Bauer and Alexander von Falkenhausen , Chiang's Fifth Campaign finally surrounded

32220-432: Was the 31st president of the United States , serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and was the director of the U.S. Food Administration , followed by post-war relief of Europe. A member of the Republican Party , he served as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1921 to 1928 before being elected president in 1928 . His presidency

32400-624: Was too close to British interests. With the goal of encouraging wise business investments, Hoover made the Commerce Department a clearinghouse of information. He recruited numerous academics from various fields and tasked them with publishing reports on different aspects of the economy, including steel production and films. To eliminate waste, he encouraged standardization of products like automobile tires and baby bottle nipples. Other efforts at eliminating waste included reducing labor losses from trade disputes and seasonal fluctuations, reducing industrial losses from accident and injury, and reducing

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