Herbert Hoover 1948 Typed Letter Signed – To Former Governor and Cabinet Member Henry Woodring

31st President.

Typed letter signed “Herbert Hoover”, June 14, 1948, personal stationery from his Waldorf-Astoria Hotel apartment in New York City, 7/25×10.5, to the “Honorable Henry H. Woodring” in Topeka, Kansas. Hoover addressed him as “Dear Governor” and writes, in full:

I see constant references in various memoirs to your letter of resignation as a Member of the Roosevelt Cabinet” which is unpublished. It still remains unpublished. I am wondering if, as an important event in American history, you would be willing to send a copy of it to me for deposit in the War Library at Stanford University. We would be glad to put it in the vault to be held against any inspection until such a date or time as you might wish. We have many such reserved documents which are important to the future historian, and I believe your letter belongs in any history of the steps toward World War II.

Henry H. Woodring (1890-1967) – Governor of Kansas (D) 1931-33, Asst. Secretary of War 1933-36, Secretary of War 1936-40 (FDR). He won the 1930 election and was Kansas governor 1931-33, only Democrat elected to a statehouse office, lost re-election to Alf Landon. He was Asst. Secretary of War 1933-36, promoted by FDR to Secretary, serving 1936-40. He projected his predecessor’s recommendations for increasing strength of the Army, National Guard and the Reserve Corps, directed revision of mobilization plans to bring personnel and procurement into balance, and stressed need to perfect the peacetime protective force. A strict non-interventionist, he came under pressure from other Cabinet members to resign in the 1st year of WW II. FDR, initially unwilling to do so, appointed outspoken interventionist Louis A. Johnson as Woodring’s Asst. Secretary. Woodring and Johnson were immediately at odds, and soon refused to speak to each other. On June 20, 1940, Roosevelt fired Woodring, replacing him with long-time GOP statesman Henry Stimson. Woodring ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Kansas in 1946, and lost the 1956 Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Mailing folds, age toning.