Harry Dexter White - Misplaced Pages

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Harry Dexter White (left)
and John Maynard Keynes (right) at
the Bretton Woods Conference

Harry Dexter White (October 1892–August 16, 1948) was an American economist, one of the founding fathers of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and according to released US Justice Department records, a Soviet spy. It has been argued that he was the most important Soviet agent to ever operate in the United States.

Background

The son of Lithuanian immigrants, White was born in Boston, Massachusetts. As a young man, he served in the U.S. Army, fighting in France during World War I. After leaving the military, he began his education at Columbia University, then transferred to Stanford where he earned a degree in economics. He received a doctorate degree in economics from Harvard University at age 30.

White took up a teaching post at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In 1934, Jacob Viner, a professor at the University of Chicago working at the Treasury Department, wrote to White offering him a job there. White accepted, and in the latter half of the thirties met with John Maynard Keynes and other leading economists. When the United States entered World War II, White was put in charge of international matters for the Treasury during which time he was operating as an agent for the KGB. He had extensive dealings with America's allies, including negotiating over financial matters with the Soviet Union.

Early Career

Philosophically, White said he was a Keynesian New Dealer. As a professed Rooseveltian internationalist his energies appeared directed at continuing the Grand Alliance and maintaining peace through a liberal trade regime. He appeared to believe that powerful multilateral institutions could avoid the mistakes of Versailles and prevent another worldwide depression. These idealistic beliefs appear now to be a mask for an agent of the Soviet Union.

In December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, White was appointed assistant to Henry Morgenthau, the Treasury secretary, to act as liaison between the Treasury and the State Department on all matters having a bearing on foreign relations and "responsibility for the management and operation of the Exchange Stabilization Fund without a change in its procedures."

After the war, White was closely involved with setting up what were called the Bretton Woods institutions - the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These institutions were intended to prevent some of the economic problems that occurred after the First World War, and help ensure that capitalism became the dominant post-war economic system.

Espionage Activities

Most Notable Espionage Achievements

As the second highest ranking official in the Department of Treasury, White was well placed to not only to provide intelligence but also to influence and determine US policy in the interests of the Soviet Union. He is considered to have brilliantly effective in doing so, with some arguing that "his career is a study in treason on an immense scale." He had a great influence over the Secretary of the Treasury who himself had a long friendship with Morgenthau. White used this power not only to prevail over economic policy but over crucial foreign policy decisions as well.

While Assistant Secretary to the Treasury White ensured that the Soviet Union was provided with plates, paper and ink for the printing of occupation currency for Germany. A US Senate committee found that White had conspired with other Soviet agents in the Treasury department to execute this plan. These included Frank Coe, Harold Glasser, Irving Kaplan and Victor Perlo.The Soviet used the currency they printed - which the US was obliged to redeem - to fund its operations throughout Eastern Europe and Germany, just as it was seeking to expand its influence. White facilitated one of the largest acts of theft from the US Treasury, if not the largest. The Soviets are believed to have printed in excess of two hundred and fifty million dollars, an amount equivalent to billions of dollars today. In addition, he recommended a ten billion loan after the War be made to the Soviet Union.

Another Senator, Charles E. Potter said that there was "highly convincing" evidence that White and his colleagues bore "a major share of the responsibility for the destruction of the Nationalist Government of China" and the resulting elevation of Mao Zedong. By delaying for years a Congressional and Government approved $500 million loan to the government, done without informing the Treasury Secretary, White caused irreparable damage to the Chinese economy, setting the scene for a Communist takeover of China in 1949.

He also wrote a proposal that Germany be stripped of all industry and be forced to become a "primarily agricultural" nation. This policy was not adopted but basically represented what Stalin wanted. This "Morgenthau Plan" to de-industrialize Germany was ostensibly based on the idea that by destroying the industrial capacity of the nation it could never rebuild its military and therefore threaten other countries again. Its real motive appears to have been to drive the Germans into poverty so they would be forced to depend on the Soviet Union. While never adopted, it appeared likely to be at various stages prior to the end of the war and some argue led the Germans to continue to fight against the US and Britain as well as the Soviets when they might have considered surrendering to the democratic Allies had the draconian Morgenthau Plan not existed. White was in any event able to delay US aid into Germany until 1948 when the Marshall Plan was implemented. This delay had terrible consequences for Germany but also greatly delayed European economic reconstruction.

Exposed as Soviet Spy

Elizabeth Bentley told the FBI that White had been involved in espionage activities on behalf of the Russia during World War II. Whittaker Chambers later testified of his association with White in the Communist underground secret apparatus up to 1938. Bentley said White's colleagues passed information to her from him. Chambers claimed he received documents from White. Though recovering from a series of heart attacks, White proclaimed his lifelong commitment to the principles of democracy and the ideals of Roosevelt's New Deal despite being a paid agent of Stalin for decades. He died of a heart attack three days later and HUAC dropped the case.

Two years after his death in a memorandum dated 15 October 1950, White was positively identified by the FBI through evidence gathered by the Venona project as a Soviet agent code named "Jurist".

In 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy and Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. alleged that Truman had known White was a Soviet spy when he appointed him to the IMF.However, this has now been refuted by declassified documents through the Freedom of Information Act which attest President Truman and the White House had not known of the existence of the Venona project. Long after his death, the Justice Department publicly disclosed the existence of conclusive evidence confirming White had indeed been involved in espionage activities. White's family however, still protests his innocence despite liberal and conservative commentators and Government bodies agreeing that White was a spy.

The 1997 bipartisan Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, states in its findings,

The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled. As does that of Harry Dexter White of the Treasury Department.

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