Cordell Hull

Cordell Hull was an American politician from Tennessee who served as secretary of state under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1944, the longest tenure in that office. He had previously spent decades in Congress and was particularly associated with lowering trade barriers through reciprocal agreements.

During the Second World War Hull took part in shaping Allied diplomacy and strongly supported the creation of a post-war international organisation that became the United Nations. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his contribution to international cooperation.

Jeff Shaara’s To Wake the Giant presents Cordell Hull as the civilian statesman carrying much of the diplomatic burden in the months before Pearl Harbor. Working with Franklin Roosevelt, Hull applies economic pressure to Japan while negotiations continue and military planners on both sides prepare for the possibility of war. His role shows the shrinking room for compromise between American demands and Japanese expansion, providing a diplomatic counterpoint to Yamamoto’s strike planning and the intelligence failures unfolding in Hawaii.