The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order

480 Pages·2013·6.36 MB·english

by  Benn Steil

The BaTTle of BreTTon Woods

T h e
B a T Tl e
o f
B r e T T o n
W o o d s
John Maynard Keynes,
Harry Dexter White,
and the Making of a
New World Order
B e n n STe i l
a C o u nCi l o n F o r e i g n re l a Ti o nS B o o k
P r i nCeTo n un i v e rSiTy P r eS S
P r i nCeTo n a n d oxFo r d
Copyright © 2013 by Benn Steil
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Princeton university Press
Published by Princeton university Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, new Jersey 08540
in the united kingdom: Princeton university Press, 6 oxford Street, Woodstock,
oxfordshire ox20 1TW
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all rights reserved
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Steil, Benn.
The battle of Bretton Woods : John Maynard keynes, harry dexter White, and the making
of a new world order / Benn Steil.
p. cm.
“a Council on Foreign relations Book.”
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-0-691-14909-7 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Monetary policy—history—20th century.
2. international finance—history—20th century. 3. united nations Monetary and Financial
Conference (1944 : Bretton Woods, n.h.) 4. keynes, John Maynard, 1883-1946. 5. White, harry
dexter, 1892–1948. i. Title.
hg255.S837 2013
339.5'3—dc23
2012035709
British library Cataloging-in-Publication data is available
The Council on Foreign relations (CFr) is an independent, nonpartisan membership
organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members,
government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic
and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better
understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the united States and
other countries. Founded in 1921, CFr carries out its mission by maintaining a diverse
membership, with special programs to promote interest and develop expertise in the
next generation of foreign policy leaders; convening meetings at its headquarters in
new york and in Washington, dC, and other cities where senior government officials,
members of Congress, global leaders, and prominent thinkers come together with
CFr members to discuss and debate major international issues; supporting a Studies
Program that fosters independent research, enabling CFr scholars to produce articles,
reports, and books and hold roundtables that analyze foreign policy issues and
make concrete policy recommendations; publishing Foreign Affairs, the preeminent
journal on international affairs and u.S. foreign policy; sponsoring independent Task
Forces that produce reports with both findings and policy prescriptions on the most
important foreign policy topics; and providing up-to-date information and analysis
about world events and american foreign policy on its website, www.cfr.org.
The Council on Foreign relations takes no institutional positions on policy issues and
has no affiliation with the u.S. government. all views expressed in its publications and
on its website are the sole responsibility of the author or authors.
This book has been composed in iTC Century Std
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the united States of america
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my precious Gloria and Ethan

ConT enTS
Acknowledgments ix
ChaPTer 1
introduction 1
ChaPTer 2
The World Comes to the White Mountains 9
ChaPTer 3
The improbable rise of harry White 17
ChaPTer 4
Maynard keynes and the Monetary Menace 61
ChaPTer 5
“The Most unsordid act” 99
ChaPTer 6
The Best-laid Plans of White and keynes 125
ChaPTer 7
Whitewash 155
ChaPTer 8
history is Made 201
ChaPTer 9
Begging like Fala 251
ChaPTer 10
out with the old order, in with the new 293
ChaPTer 11
epilogue 330
ConT enTS | viii
Appendix 1 Harry Dexter White Manuscript Photos 349
Appendix 2 Statement of Harry S. Truman on Harry
Dexter White, 1953 351
Cast of Characters 355
Notes 371
References 407
Index 427
aCknoWledgMenTS
i am extremely grateful and indebted to ten talented and highly
motivated young people who provided critical research support in
the writing of this book: romil Chouhan, demetri karagas, Mark
holden, nikolai krylov, ana Baric, Jess Seok, Maksymilian Czuperski,
Parinitha Sastry, ashley lannquist, and Summer lindsey. i was also
privileged to have had ongoing feedback and sage advice from my
Council on Foreign relations study group, and would like to express
my warmest thanks to each of the members who so generously dedi-
cated their time and shared their expertise: liaquat ahamed, david
Baldwin, david Beim, John Biggs, Michael Blumenthal, karen Parker
Feld, richard Foster, Jeff garten, Jim grant, John heimann, Jim hoge,
harold James, Walter russell Mead, ernie Patrikis, amity Shlaes,
Paul volcker, Shang-Jin Wei, and, in particular, the chairman of the
group, reuben Jeffery. i further benefited greatly from detailed com-
ments on draft text from andrew Wylie, Scott Moyers, Seth ditchik,
david Chambers, dave Collum, and two anonymous referees. Finally, i
would like to thank richard haass, president of the Council on Foreign
relations, and Jim lindsay, CFr’s director of studies, for their support
and encouragement, as well as the Smith richardson Foundation for
its generous grant to fund the research. errors and other failings in the
book are, of course, mine and mine alone.