赫伯特·克拉克·胡佛(herbert clark hoover,1874年8月10日-1964年10月20日)，美国第31任总统。共和党籍。除从事政治外，还是采矿工程师和作家。曾任沃伦·g·哈定和卡尔文·柯立芝两届总统的商务部长，其间打出“经济现代化”的旗号推动政府干预经济。1928年大选，此前从未经选举而担当政府职位的胡佛轻松赢得党内提名，并在国内一片欣欣向荣的乐观气氛中完胜民主党候选人阿尔·史密斯当选总统。他是美国迄今为止由内阁部长直接升为总统的最后一人。

　　war comes to europe

　　september 1, 1939

fellow americans of the radio audience:

　　this is one of the saddest weeks that have come to humanity in a hundred years. a senseless war seems inevitably forced upon hundreds of millions of people. the whole world still prays for some miracle that might deliver us. for war means the killing of millions of the best and the most courageous of men who might contribute something to human's progress. it means the killing and starvation of millions of women and children. it means another quarter of a century of impoverishment for the whole world. and it will likely be a long war. it is possible that the brave people of poland may be overrun in a few months, but there seems no point of access from which an overwhelming attack can be delivered from the british and french on one side, to the germans on the other, which might quickly end this war. it's likely to be a war of slow attrition, and the fate of poland will depend upon its ending. the air defenses of france and england, their greatly superior naval strength, their manpower, their resources, their resolution, make it certain that they can defend themselves. and it is true that vast fleets of airplanes on both sides contribute a new and uncertain factor, but there is nothing which proves that even the superiority in airplanes can win the war. and while assurances have been given that there will be no bombing of women and children, there may come a time of desperation when all restraints go to the winds. it's likely to be the most barbarous war that we have ever known.

　　this situation in the world today is not the act of the german people themselves, but it's the act of a group who hold them in subjection. the whole nazi system is repugnant to the american people. the most of american sympathy will be to the democracies, but whatever our sympathies are, we can not solve the problems of europe. america must keep out of this war. the president and the congress should be supported in their every effort to keep us out. we can keep out, if we have the resolute national will to do so. we can be of more service to europe and to humanity if we preserve the vitality and strength of the united states for use in the period of peace which must sometime come. and we must keep out if we are to preserve for civilization the very foundations of democracy and of free men.