"We are passing through the most serious moment in the history of the world since the year 410 A.D.-the year of the fall of the Roman Empire and the capture of Rome by the barbarian king, Alaric." So commented Herbert Hoover on May 25, 1940, to the bar association of Nassau County, New York. German troops had just reached the English Channel. The hulk of British and French forces in Belgium and northwestern France were trapped. The world, said the former president, was experiencing "the most gigantic drama of 1,000 years."'   Yet the very same Herbert Hoover who had voiced such alarm was a major opponent of American entry into World War II

Volume 8, Number 2 (1987)