Hoover recalled fondly in West Branch

WEST BRANCH - A humble visionary and a savior for millions of people: those aren't the words most Americans pin to Herbert Hoover, the only American president born in Iowa.

But it was the picture painted Saturday of a man who became one of the most vilified presidents of all time after he presided over the country during the Great Depression.

“Part of the story is missing,” said Margaret Hoover, his great-granddaughter and a political strategist, commentator and author, during a gravesite ceremony commemorating the president in his hometown of West Branch.  About 100 people attended the ceremony, which took place during West Branch's Hometown Days.

The 31st president was also a humanitarian, a conservationist and, some historians have said, the greatest U.S. Secretary of Commerce in history.

Margaret Hoover said the president's reputation was soiled by political smears, particularly from Franklin D. Roosevelt, who defeated Hoover in his reelection bid.

“Hoover never fought back,” she said.

A Republican who briefly flirted with the Democratic Party, Herbert Hoover was “willing to work with others and not get the credit,” said Lynda Johnson Robb, the eldest daughter of President Lyndon Johnson and the ceremony's keynote speaker. “Maybe some of our leaders in Washington should hear that.”

“It seems today that bipartisanship has gone the way of the dinosaur,” she added.

It wasn't always that way, Johnson Robb said, recalling the close friendship between Hoover and President Harry Truman, a Democrat. She also remembered Hoover's willingness at age 89 to offer assistance to her father, also a Democrat, when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy thrust Lyndon Johnson into the oval office.

Johnson Robb said her father used a Hoover plan in reducing government waste. She said Lyndon Johnson valued Hoover's opinion so much, he ordered Robert McNamara to meet with him after McNamara admitted he had not read the plan.

Truman, Johnson and Hoover all left office with low approval ratings.

“In the long run of history, maybe we'll see the bigger picture,” Johnson Robb said.

Margaret Hoover said she hopes more Americans will use a wider lens when they examine the legacy of her great-grandfather. He is still remembered internationally as a man who organized relief efforts that fed millions of people in Europe, including the entire nation of Belgium.

“He made a model of worldwide humanitarian aid,” read Patrick Van Nevel, Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Belgium in Moline, Ill., from a letter sent from the Belgium's U.S. embassy. “The results of Hoover's work in Belgium are still felt.”

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, said he is proud of Iowa's only president.

“Hoover, above all else, stood for helping people,” he said. “No matter how we measure it, we know that Hoover made an impact on our state and our nation.”