Cordell Hull: Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize Winner
By Jason Sibert
Although his name is barely recognized today, Cordell Hull is an important figure in internationalist thought and in global diplomacy.
Hull served as Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944. The former secretary of state was born in the state of Tennessee in a log cabin in the town of Olympus. He graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University and was soon admitted to the bar. Hull served as chairmen of the Clay County Democratic Party and later served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1893 to 1897. He served in the Spanish-American War as a captain in the Tennessee Voluntary Infantry. From 1903 to 1907 he served as a local judge. Hull later served in the United States House of Representatives from 1907 to 1921 and again from 1923 to 1931.
Hull was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930 and then resigned in 1933 to become Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of state. He fought for lower tariffs and more trade during the Great Depression. Hull also pursued a “good neighbor” policy with Latin American nations to keep them out of the Fascist orbit in the depression and World War II.
The secretary of state was the architect of the United Nations. During World War II, Hull and Roosevelt worked toward the development of a world organization that would prevent a third world war. The secretary of state and his staff drafted “The Charter of the United Nations” in 1943. Hull won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in the creation of the UN. He resigned from the post of secretary of state in 1944 due to ill health.
Hull died in 1955. His work and recognition as an advocate of internationalism is important to us today. Right wing populism is proving to be a factor in democratic systems and totalitarian (China) and authoritarian (Russia) countries are making the international system much less stable.
Hull was an admirer of President Woodrow Wilson and a supporter of the League of Nations. The State Department expanded under his watch. It had 800 employees when he started and had 3,700 when he left. From the beginning of his tenure as secretary of state, he thought the governments should educate their citizens on the causes of war and encourage their citizens to oppose war. The right- wing populism infecting some democracies and the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes view the world as a hostile place where other states only serve as a hostile force. A difference set of ideas animated Hull’s career. He felt that there should be frequent international conferences and contacts between the peoples of the world’s nations; that there should be peace agreements; that there must be common policy on neutrality; and that there should be liberal commercial policy; restoration of normal relations between nations; revitalization of international law; and faithful observance of international agreements.
In an era of nationalism, or nationalisms, our country – and the other nation-states of the world – must agree to some of the basic ideas of a man like Hull. The technology for killing is much greater than it was in World War II. We must embrace a revived UN, or a successor organization, where ground rules can be set for a more law-driven world.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project
