For more than a half century, dating from FDR and Cordell Hull's "Good Neighbor" policies, U.S. diplomacy in Latin America has been focused on encouraging democracy, free markets, and economic development.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Obama goes south: An analysis of the Summit of the Americas

He recalled Stalin whispering to him in 1943 that Russia would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated, and he passed the whisper to Cordell Hull, an American diplomat, at a Kremlin dinner party.

ECONOMIST: Valentin Berezhkov

By contrast, the Consul General in Stuttgart, Samuel Honaker, made the visa process "unnecessarily hard, " at least according to letters from Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures and an ardent rescuer, to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

WSJ: A Tortuous Road to Refuge | Against the Odds | Museum of Jewish Heritage | By Julia M. Klein

For anyone seeking to understand the origins of Gore's political personality, routinely characterized as stiff and oddly formal, there are clues to be found in the direct line that traces back through the family to their political hero, Cordell Hull.

CNN: Excerpt: 'The Prince of Tennessee: The Rise of Al Gore'