Hoover's promise of parity meets the cruiser gap

Herbert Hoover wanted naval equality with Britain without paying for a large American buildup. The British cruiser fleet served worldwide imperial and trade commitments, while the United States Navy wanted more cruisers than its government wished to fund. This mismatch shows how political parity could become an image or accounting exercise rather than a comparison of missions and usable capability, all while Britain's Ten Year Rule still constrained defence planning. That rule shows that the reluctance to fund readiness was part of a wider assumption that another major war remained safely distant, not merely conference bargaining.