Side‐Door Diplomacy: Herbert Hoover, FDR, and United States–Japanese Negotiations, 1941

This article recounts former president Herbert Hoover's secret efforts to avert war between Japan and the United States in 1941, culminating in his behind-the-scenes intervention to encourage an eleventh hour modus vivendi just a few days before Pearl Harbor. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 1941, Hoover believed he had inside information about Japanese–American relations through his unique access to Japan's Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura. Hoover's close associates William R. Castle (former undersecretary of state) and John C. O'Laughlin (publisher of the Army-Navy Journal) both talked regularly with Nomura and reported back to the “chief.” Hoover's last-minute involvement in December was facilitated by Raoul Desvernine, an attorney for the Japanese embassy. Hoover's failure to avert war confirmed his belief that FDR's rigidity amounted to “sticking pins in tigers” and guaranteed U.S. entry into World War II via the Pacific “back door.” This essay will assess Hoover's secret, if sometimes misguided, efforts to prevent a war that neither he nor his successor could stop.