Harry Lloyd Hopkins (August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946) was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, Hopkins directed
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
relief programs before serving as the 8th
United States Secretary of Commerce from 1938 to 1940 and as Roosevelt's chief foreign policy advisor and liaison to
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
leaders during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. During his career, Hopkins supervised the
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration, the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Adm ...
, the
Civil Works Administration
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were ...
, and the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
, which he built into the largest employer in the United States. He later oversaw the $50 billion
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
program of military aid to the Allies and, as Roosevelt's personal envoy, played a pivotal role in shaping the alliance between the United States and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
Born in Iowa, Hopkins settled in New York City after he graduated from
Grinnell College. He accepted a position in New York City's Bureau of Child Welfare and worked for various
social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...
and
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
organizations. He was elected president of the
National Association of Social Workers
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is a professional organization of social workers in the United States. NASW has about 120,000 members. The NASW provides guidance, research, up to date information, advocacy, and other resources f ...
in 1923. In 1931,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration chairman
Jesse I. Straus
Jesse Isidor Straus (June 25, 1872 – October 4, 1936) served as the American ambassador to France from 1933 to 1936.
Life and career
Jesse Straus was born in Manhattan, the eldest son of the German immigrants Isidor Straus (1845–1912) and ...
hired Hopkins as the agency's executive director. His successful leadership of the program earned the attention of then-
New York Governor
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a ...
Roosevelt, who brought Hopkins into his federal administration after he won the
1932 presidential election. Hopkins enjoyed close relationships with President Roosevelt and First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
, and was considered a potential successor to the president until the late 1930s, when his health began to decline due to a long-running battle with
stomach cancer
Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...
.
As Roosevelt's closest confidant, Hopkins assumed a leading foreign policy role after the outset of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. From 1940 until 1943, Hopkins lived in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
and assisted the president in the management of American foreign policy, particularly toward the United Kingdom and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. He traveled frequently to the United Kingdom, whose prime minister,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, recalled Hopkins in his memoirs as a "natural leader of men" with "a flaming soul." Hopkins attended the major
conferences of the Allied powers, including the
Cairo Conference
The Cairo Conference (codenamed Sextant) also known as the First Cairo Conference, was one of the 14 summit meetings during World War II that occurred on November 22–26, 1943. The Conference was held in Cairo, Egypt, between the United Kingdo ...
(November 1943), the
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy i ...
(November–December 1943), the
Casablanca Conference (January 1943), and the
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
(February 1945). His health continued to decline, and he died in 1946 at the age of 55.
Early life
Hopkins was born at 512 Tenth Street in
Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...
, the fourth child of four sons and one daughter of David Aldona and Anna (''née'' Pickett) Hopkins. His father, born in
Bangor, Maine
Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121).
Modern Bangor ...
, ran a harness shop (after an erratic career as a salesman, prospector, storekeeper, and bowling-alley operator), but his real passion was bowling, and he eventually returned to it as a business. Anna Hopkins, born in
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...
, had moved at an early age to
Vermillion, South Dakota, where she married David. She was deeply religious and active in the affairs of the
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
church. Shortly after Harry was born, the family moved successively to
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...
, and
Kearney and
Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings is a List of cities in Nebraska, city and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 25,152 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is known as the town where Kool-Aid ...
. They spent two years in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and finally settled in
Grinnell, Iowa.
Hopkins attended
Grinnell College and soon after his graduation in 1912 took a job with Christodora House, a social
settlement house in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
. In the spring of 1913, he accepted a position from John A. Kingsbury of the
New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP) as a "friendly visitor" and superintendent of the Employment Bureau within the AICP's Department of Family Welfare. During the 1915 recession, Hopkins and the AICP's William Matthews, with $5,000 from
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson (December 20, 1850 – February 22, 1921), American philanthropist and advocate for public health and women's education, was the daughter of Jeremiah Milbank (1818–1884), a successful commission merchant, manufactur ...
's
Milbank Memorial Fund
The ''Milbank Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed healthcare journal covering health care policy. It was established in 1923 and is published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Milbank Memorial Fund, an endowed national foundation funded by ...
, organized the Bronx Park Employment program, which was one of the first public employment programs in the US.
Social and public health work
In 1915, New York City Mayor
John Purroy Mitchel
John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor and he is sometimes referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York." Mitchel is remembered for his sho ...
appointed Hopkins executive secretary of the
Bureau of Child Welfare which administered pensions to mothers with dependent children.
Hopkins at first opposed America's entrance into
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but, when war was declared in 1917, he supported it enthusiastically. He was rejected for the draft because of a bad eye. Hopkins moved to
where he worked for the
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
as director of Civilian Relief, Gulf Division. Eventually, the Gulf Division of the Red Cross merged with the Southwestern Division and Hopkins, headquartered now in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, was appointed general manager in 1921. Hopkins helped draft a charter for the
American Association of Social Workers (AASW) and was elected its president in 1923.
In 1922, Hopkins returned to New York City, where the AICP was involved with the
Milbank Memorial Fund
The ''Milbank Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed healthcare journal covering health care policy. It was established in 1923 and is published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Milbank Memorial Fund, an endowed national foundation funded by ...
and the State Charities Aid Association in running three health demonstrations in New York State. Hopkins became manager of the Bellevue-Yorkville health project and assistant director of the AICP. In mid-1924 he became executive director of the New York
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
Association. During his tenure, the agency grew enormously and absorbed the
New York Heart Association The New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification provides a simple way of classifying the extent of congestive heart failure, heart failure. It places patients in one of four categories based on how much they are limited during physic ...
.
In 1931, New York Governor
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
named
R. H. Macy's department store president
Jesse Straus as president of the
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Admi ...
(TERA). Straus named Hopkins, then unknown to Roosevelt, as TERA's executive director. His efficient administration of the initial $20 million outlay to the agency gained Roosevelt's attention, and in 1932, he promoted Hopkins to the presidency of the agency. Hopkins and
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
began a long friendship, which strengthened his role in relief programs.
New Deal
In March 1933, Roosevelt summoned Hopkins to Washington as federal relief administrator. Convinced that paid work was psychologically more valuable than cash handouts, Hopkins sought to continue and expand New York State's work relief programs, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration. He supervised the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Adm ...
(FERA), the
Civil Works Administration
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were ...
(CWA), and the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(WPA). Over 90% of the people employed by the Hopkins programs were unemployed or on relief. He feuded with
Harold Ickes, who ran a rival program, the
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...
, which also created jobs but did not require applicants to be unemployed or on relief.
FERA, the largest program from 1933 to 1935, involved giving money to localities to operate work relief projects to employ those on direct relief. CWA was similar but did not require workers to be on relief to receive a government-sponsored job. In less than four months, the CWA hired four million people, and during its five months of operation, the CWA built and repaired 200 swimming pools, 3,700 playgrounds, 40,000 schools, of road, and 12 million feet of sewer pipe.
The WPA, which followed the CWA, employed 8.5 million people in its seven-year history, working on 1.4 million projects, including the building or repair of 103 golf courses, 1,000 airports, 2,500 hospitals, 2,500 sports stadiums, 3,900 schools, 8,192 parks, 12,800 playgrounds, 124,031 bridges, 125,110 public buildings, and of highways and roads. The WPA operated on its own on selected projects in co-operation with local and state governments, but always with its own staff and budget. Hopkins started programs for youth (
National Youth Administration) and for artists and writers (
Federal One Programs). Hopkins and Eleanor Roosevelt worked together to publicize and defend New Deal relief programs. He was concerned with rural areas but increasingly focused on
cities in the Great Depression
Throughout the industrial world, cities were hit hard during the Great Depression, beginning in 1929 and lasting through most of the 1930s. Worst hit were port cities (as world trade fell) and cities that depended on heavy industry, such as the st ...
.
Before Hopkins began to decline from his struggle with stomach cancer in the late 1930s, Roosevelt appeared to be training him as a possible successor. With the advent of World War II in Europe, however, Roosevelt ran again in 1940 and won an unprecedented third term.
World War II
On May 10, 1940, after a long night and day spent discussing the
German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg that had ended the so-called "
Phoney War," Roosevelt urged a tired Hopkins to stay for dinner and then the night in a second-floor White House bedroom. Hopkins would live out of the bedroom for the next three-and-a-half years.
On December 7, 1941, at 1:40 pm, Hopkins was in the Oval Study, in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
, having lunch with President Roosevelt, when Roosevelt received the first report that
Pearl Harbor had been attacked via phone from Secretary of the Navy
Frank Knox
William Franklin Knox (January 1, 1874 – April 28, 1944) was an American politician, newspaper editor and publisher. He was also the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936, and Secretary of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt during ...
. Initially, Hopkins was skeptical of the news until Chief of Naval Operations Adm.
Harold Rainsford Stark called a few minutes later to confirm Pearl Harbor had in fact been attacked.
During the war years, Hopkins acted as Roosevelt's chief emissary to British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
. In January 1941, Roosevelt dispatched Hopkins to assess Britain's determination and situation. Churchill escorted the important visitor all over the United Kingdom. Before he returned, at a small dinner party in the North British Hotel,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Hopkins rose to propose a toast: "I suppose you wish to know what I am going to say to President Roosevelt on my return. Well I am going to quote to you one verse from the Book of Ruth ... 'Whither thou goest, I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.'" Hopkins became the administrator of the
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
program, under which the United States gave to Britain and Soviet Union,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and other
Allied nations
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. ...
food, oil, and
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specifi ...
including warships, warplanes and weaponry. Repayment was primarily in the form of Allied military action against the enemy, as well as leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory used by American forces.
![Harry Hopkins NYWTS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Harry_Hopkins_NYWTS.jpg)
Hopkins had a major voice in policy for the vast $50 billion Lend-Lease program, especially regarding supplies, first for Britain and then, upon the German invasion, the Soviets. He went to Moscow in July 1941 to make personal contact with
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
. Hopkins recommended and Roosevelt accepted the inclusion of the
Soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in th ...
in Lend Lease. Hopkins made Lend Lease decisions in terms of Roosevelt's broad foreign policy goals. He accompanied Churchill to the
Atlantic Conference
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and ...
. Hopkins promoted an aggressive war against Germany and successfully urged Roosevelt to use the Navy to protect convoys headed for Britain before the US had entered the war in December 1941. Roosevelt brought him along as advisor to his meetings with Churchill and Stalin at
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
,
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
in 1942-43, and
Yalta
Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crimea ...
in 1945.
![Harry Hopkins meets President Franklin Delano Roosevelt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Harry_Hopkins_meets_President_Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt.jpg)
He was a firm supporter of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, which received Lend-Lease aid for its military and air force. Hopkins wielded more diplomatic power than the entire
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
. Hopkins helped identify and sponsor numerous potential leaders, including
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
. He continued to live in the White House and saw the President more often than any other advisor.
In mid-1943, Hopkins faced a barrage of criticism from Republicans and the press that he had abused his position for personal profit. One Representative asserted that British media tycoon
Lord Beaverbrook
William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...
had given Hopkins's wife, Louise, $500,000 worth of emeralds, which Louise denied. Newspapers ran stories detailing sumptuous dinners that Hopkins attended while he was making public calls for sacrifice. Hopkins briefly considered suing the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' for libel after a story that compared him to
Grigory Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
, the famous courtier of Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia, but he was dissuaded by Roosevelt.
Although Hopkins's health was steadily declining, Roosevelt sent him on additional trips to Europe in 1945. Hopkins attended the
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
in February 1945. He tried to resign after Roosevelt died, but President
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
sent Hopkins on one more mission to Moscow.
Hopkins had three sons who served in the armed forces during the war: Robert, David and Stephen. Stephen was killed in action while he was serving in the Marine Corps.
Relations with Soviet Union
Hopkins was the top American official assigned to dealing with Soviet officials during World War II. He liaised with Soviet officials from the middle ranks to the very highest, including Stalin.
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...
was Hopkins' counterpart with responsibility for
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
. He often explained Roosevelt's plans to Stalin and other top Soviet officials to enlist Soviet support for American objectives, an endeavor that met with limited success. A particularly striking example of bad faith was Moscow's refusal to allow American naval experts to see the German experimental U-boat station at
Gdynia captured on March 28, 1945 and thus to help the protection of the very convoys that carried Lend-Lease aid. In turn, Hopkins passed on Stalin's stated goals and needs to Roosevelt. As the top American decision maker in Lend-Lease, he gave priority to supplying the Soviet Union, despite repeated objections from Republicans. As Soviet soldiers were bearing the brunt of the war, Hopkins felt that American aid to the Soviets would hasten the war's conclusion.
Hopkins continued to be a target of attacks even after his death.
George Racey Jordan testified to the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
in December 1949 that Hopkins passed nuclear secrets to the Soviets. Historians do not cite Jordan as credible since at the time Jordan claimed to have met with Hopkins in Washington regarding uranium shipments, Hopkins was in intensive care at the
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...
in Minnesota. In 1963, the FBI concluded that Jordan "either lied for publicity and profit or was delusional." According to historian
Sean McMeekin
Early life and career
McMeekin grew up in Rochester, New York and studied history at Stanford University (B.A. 1996) and the University of California, Berkeley (M.A. 1998 and PhD 2001) as well as in Paris, Berlin, and Moscow. He also held a ...
, in his recent book ''Stalin’s War'' (2021), “Many US lend-lease records, including the correspondence of Hopkins and
Edward Stettinius Jr and the minutes of the Soviet protocol committee, were declassified in the 1970s, long after opinions about Soviet espionage had hardened into dogma. These files are now open, and they confirm the veracity of nearly all of Jordan’s claims, except for his allegation that Hopkins’s actions were illegal”.
It is likely that any Soviets who spoke to Hopkins would have been routinely required to report the contact to the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
, the Soviet national security agency. Eduard Mark (1998) says that some Soviets, such as spymaster
Iskhak Akhmerov
Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov (russian: italic=yes, Исха́к Абду́лович Ахме́ров, tt-Cyrl, Исхак Габдулла улы Әхмәров, translit=İsxaq Ğabdulla ulı Əxmərov) (1901–1976) was a highly decorated OGPU/NK ...
, thought that Hopkins was pro-Soviet, but others thought that he was not. Verne W. Newton, the author of ''FDR and the Holocaust'', said that no writer discussing Hopkins has identified any secrets disclosed or any decision in which he distorted American priorities to help communism. As Mark demonstrated, Hopkins was not pro-Soviet in his recommendations to Roosevelt; he was anti-German and pro-American. Any "secrets" disclosed were authorized. Mark says that at the time, any actions were taken specifically to help the American war effort and to prevent the Soviets from making a deal with Hitler.
It is currently considered likely that
Laurence Duggan was the titular agent "19."
Hopkins may simply have been naïve in his estimation of Soviet intentions. The historian Robert Conquest wrote that "Hopkins seems just to have accepted an absurdly fallacious stereotype of Soviet motivation, without making any attempt whatever to think, or to study the readily available evidence, or to seek the judgement of the knowledgeable. He conducted policy vis-a-vis Stalin with mere dogmatic confidence in his own (and his circle's) unshakeable sentiments."
Personal life
In 1913, Hopkins married Ethel Gross (1886–1976), a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant active in New York City's
Progressive movement. They had three sons: David, Robert, and Stephen, (they had lost an infant daughter to whooping cough) and though Gross divorced Hopkins in 1930 shortly before Hopkins became a public figure, the two kept up an intimate correspondence until 1945.
[Arthur Goldschmidt]
"Relief Programs and Harry Hopkins."
In ''The Making of the New Deal: The Insiders Speak.'' Eds. Katie Louchheim and Frank Freidel. Harvard University Press, 1983. . p. 191. In 1931, Hopkins married Barbara Duncan, who died of cancer six years later.
They had one daughter, Diana (1932-2020). In 1942, Hopkins married Louise Gill Macy (1906–1963) in the
Yellow Oval Room
The Yellow Oval Room is an oval room located on the south side of the second floor in the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. First used as a drawing room in the John Adams administration, it has been used ...
at the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
.
[The White House Historical Society]
"How many weddings have been held at the White House?"
/ref> Macy was a divorced, gregarious former editor for ''Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...
''. The two continued to live at the White House at Roosevelt's request, though Louise eventually demanded a home of their own. Hopkins ended his long White House stay on December 21, 1943, moving with his wife to a Georgetown townhouse.
Cancer and death
In mid-1939, Hopkins was told that he had stomach cancer
Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...
, and doctors performed an extensive operation that removed 75% of his stomach. What remained of Hopkins's stomach struggled to digest proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
and fat
In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.
The term often refers spec ...
, and a few months after the operation, doctors stated that he had only four weeks to live. At this point, Roosevelt brought in experts, who transfused Hopkins with blood plasma
Blood plasma is a light amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but contains proteins and other constituents of whole blood in suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intra ...
that halted his deterioration. When the " Phoney War" phase of World War II ended in May 1940, the situation galvanised Hopkins; as Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of several U.S. presidents, including ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream ...
wrote, "the curative impact of Hopkins' increasingly crucial role in the war effort was to postpone the sentence of death the doctors had given him for five more years".
Though his death has been attributed to his stomach cancer, some historians have suggested that it was the cumulative malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
related to his post-cancer digestive problems. Another claim is that Hopkins died from liver failure due to hepatitis
Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...
or cirrhosis
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
, but Robert Sherwood authoritatively reported that Hopkins' postmortem examination showed the cause of death was hemosiderosis[Robert E. Sherwood, ''Roosevelt and Hopkins'', 2001 revised edition, page 889] due to hepatic iron accumulation from his many blood transfusions and iron supplements.
Hopkins died in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on January 29, 1946, at the age of 55. His body was cremated and his ashes interred in his former college town at the Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell, Iowa. There is a house on the Grinnell College campus named after him and his childhood home, with a plaque, is located at Sixth Avenue and Elm Street.
References
West, Diana. "American Betrayal" =(2014)
Further reading
* Adams, Henry Hitch. ''Harry Hopkins: A Biography'' (1977)
* Bremer, William W. "Along the 'American Way': The New Deal's Work Relief Programs for the Unemployed," ''Journal of American History
''The Journal of American History'' is the official academic journal of the Organization of American Historians. It covers the field of American history and was established in 1914 as the ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', the official jo ...
'' Vol. 62, No. 3 (Dec., 1975), pp. 636–65
in JSTOR
* Hopkins, June. "The road not taken: Harry Hopkins and New Deal Work Relief." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 29, 2(306-316)
online edition
*
*Howard, Donald S. ''The WPA and Federal Relief Policy'' (1943
online edition
* Klehr, Harvey; Haynes, John Earl. "Harry Hopkins and Soviet Espionage" ''Intelligence & National Security'' (Nov 2014) 29#6 pp 864–879.
*Kurzman, Paul A. ''Harry Hopkins and the New Deal'', R. E. Burdick Publishers (1974)
*Meacham, Jon. ''Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship'' Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
(2003).
* McJimsey, George. "Hopkins, Harry Lloyd" i
''American National Biography Online'' (2000)
*McJimsey George T. ''Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy'' (1987), biography.
* Meriam, Lewis. ''Relief and Social Security''. The Brookings Institution. (1946). Highly detailed analysis and statistical summary of all New Deal relief programs; 900 page
online edition
* Sherwood, Robert E. ''Roosevelt and Hopkins'' (1948), memoir by senior FDR aide; Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
; published in England as ''The White House Papers Of Harry L. Hopkins Vol. I'' (1948) to Jan 1942;
online vol 1 to Jan 1942
*Singleton, Jeff. ''The American Dole: Unemployment Relief and the Welfare State in the Great Depression'' (2000
online edition
*Smith, Jason Scott. ''Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956'' (2005)
*Smith, Jean Edward
Jean Edward Smith (October 13, 1932 – September 1, 2019) was a biographer and the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University. He was also professor emeritus at the University of Toronto after having served as professor ...
. ''FDR'', Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
(2007) scholarly biography
* Williams, Edward Ainsworth. ''Federal Aid for Relief'' (1939
online edition
*"Harry Lloyd Hopkins". '' Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 4: 1946-1950''. American Council of Learned Societies
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
, 1974.
;World War II
*Allen, R.G.D. "Mutual Aid between the U.S. and the British Empire, 1941–5", in ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' no. 109 #3, 1946. pp 243–7
in JSTOR
detailed statistical data on Lend Lease
*Clarke, Sir Richard. ''Anglo-American Economic Collaboration in War and Peace, 1942-1949''. (1982), British perspective
* Dallek, Robert. ''Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945'' (2nd ed. 1995) standard scholarly surve
online
*Dawson, Raymond H. ''The Decision to Aid Russia, 1941: Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics'' (1959)
*Dobson, Alan P. ''U.S. Wartime Aid to Britain, 1940-1946'' London, 1986.
*
*Herring Jr. George C. ''Aid to Russia, 1941-1946: Strategy, Diplomacy, the Origins of the Cold War'' (1973
online edition
*Kimball, Warren F.
Warren Forbes Kimball (born December 24, 1935) is a historian of the Second World War and American foreign policy. He was an academic adviser to the International Churchill Society, Churchill Centre in London.
He graduated from Georgetown Univers ...
''The Most Unsordid Act: Lend-Lease, 1939-1941'' (1969).
*Kimball, Warren F. "Franklin D. Roosevelt and World War II," ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' Vol. 34#1 (2004) pp 83+.
*Louis, William Roger. ''Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941-1945''. 1977.
* MacManus, James. ''Sleep in Peace Tonight'', (Thomas Dunne Books, New York 2014), , A novel about Hopkins in London in 1941
*O'Sullivan, Christopher. ''Harry Hopkins: FDR's Envoy to Churchill and Stalin''. (Rowman and Littlefield 2014)
*Reynolds, David. ''The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance 1937-1941: A Study on Competitive Cooperation'' (1981)
*Roll, David. ''The Hopkins Touch: Harry Hopkins and the Forging of the Alliance to Defeat Hitler'' (2012
excerpt and text search
an
author webcast presentation
* Sherwood, Robert E. ''Roosevelt and Hopkins'' (1948), memoir by senior FDR aide; Pulitzer Prize.
* Tuttle, Dwight William. ''Harry L. Hopkins and Anglo-American-Soviet Relations, 1941-1945'' (1983)
*Woods, Randall Bennett. ''A Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941-1946'' (1990)
External links
*
* Svetlana Chervonnaya
"Hopkins, Harry Lloyd (1890-1946),"
Documents Talk: A Non-Definitive History, www.documentstalk.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Harry L.
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