Competition of Benefactors: The Disputed Legacy of Herbert Hoover’s Humanitarian Drive in Belgium during the First World War

The Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), set up in October 1914 and overseen throughout the war by Herbert Hoover, saved millions of Belgians and hundreds of thousands of French from starvation. If we leave aside the heroic literature dedicated to this pioneering experience of entrepreneurial humanitarianism, the bulk of scholarly studies have dealt with the tense diplomatic negotiations between belligerent powers which saw the distribution of tons of foodstuff. The study of the postwar legacy of this drive, on the other hand, has largely been overlooked. The proposed article seeks to fill the gap through the lens of an ambivalent, even asymmetrical, diplomacy of gratitude. The end of the relief program led to the liquidation of the CRB, a complex financial operation which contributed to debunk the common view of Americans holding the legitimate monopoly of benevolence. Herbert Hoover and his Belgian counterpart (and humanitarian rival), the financier Emile Francqui, had first conceived a strategy of remembrance of their wartime collective action centred on children, youth and higher education. However, while their effort to create a single Belgian-American foundation collapsed partly due to their conflicting postwar agendas, the dominant narrative of US aid met growing resistance within Belgian political and academic milieus. At the heart of these competing national memories lay the sensitive negotiations of inter-Allied war debts repayment plans. Against this backdrop, American professionalised philanthropy would play a seminal role in the reappraisal of US foreign policy and the proper distribution of gratitude.