12 - Rescue

Summary

If WWII had brought death and destruction to civilians on a previously unimaginable scale, the postwar peace was seeming scarcely better. Hunger quickly beset Europe, most acutely in the defeated nations. Years of combat had shattered most countries’ ability to produce and transport food. A global food shortage ensued. More than half a billion people in the world were at risk of death by starvation. The challenge was great; the need was immense. Thanks to Stimson’s interventions, America turned for help to Herbert Hoover. Chapter 12 begins an examination of Hoover’s postwar food relief campaign and how average Americans joined in to feed their former foes.