| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Harry Dexter White ( 1892- 1948) was an American economist. He was one of the founding fathers of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
White was born in Boston, Massachusetts; he was the son of Lithuanian immigrants. As a young man, he served in the U.S. Army in France during World War I. He attended Columbia University when he was aged 30; then Stanford, where he received his first degree in economics; and finally a doctorate at Harvard. White took up a teaching post at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin for a few years before being asked to work at the US Trasury department in 1934. In the thirties he 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. He had extensive dealings with America's allies, including the Soviet Union.
Philosophically, White was a Keynesian New Dealer. As a dedicated Rooseveltian internationalist his energies were directed at continuing the Grand Alliance and maintaining peace through a liberal trade regime. He believed that powerful multilateral institutions could avoid the mistakes of Versailles and another world depression.
After the war, White was closely involved with setting up what was 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 capitalismCapitalism generally refers to a combination of economic practices that became institutionalized in Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries. Exactly which historic and current practices are considered part of "capitalism" varies among users of the term became the dominant post-war economic system.
In August 1948, Harry Dexter White appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to defend his reputation. Two former spies, Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker ChambersJay Vivian (Whittaker) Chambers ( April 1, 1901- July 9, 1961) was an American writer, editor, political operative and informant. He was an icon of the Red Scare of the 1950s, best known for his accusation and testimony against Alger Hiss. A controversial, were alleging that he had spied for Russia. Bentley said his colleagues had passed information to her from him. Chambers claimed that White gave him documents for an underground Communist cell in the 1930s. White, though recovering from a series of heart attacks, stoutly proclaimed his lifelong commitment to the principles of democracy and the ideals of Roosevelt's New Deal. He died three days later and HUAC retreated from the case.
J. Edgar Hoover later learned, from the secret VENONA project, that White's name appeared in some decrypted wartime Soviet cables. In 1953 he briefed Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. who resurrected the case and declared that White was a spy. White's bronze bust was ignominiously removed to the IMF's basement.