Harry Dexter White, the Mexicans, and the New Bretton Woods

Harry Dexter White, the Mexicans, and the New Bretton Woods
Treasury expert. Washington, D.C., May 29. A new informal picture of Harry D. White, Director of Monetary Research, United States Treasury, Harris & Ewing, photographer - Library of Congress

International Guest Post by José Alfredo Félix Serna of Veterans for the Republic of Mexico

Exonerate Harry Dexter White!

The brawl between Franklin Roosevelt’s representative Harry Dexter White, and the British Empire’s John Maynard Keynes, at Bretton Woods in 1944, is still unsettled today after eighty years. White won the battle then, for which he has never been forgiven. His Bretton Woods monetary system gave the world thirty years of relative prosperity until it was destroyed in the 1970s.Today, as we turn back from the madness of globalization to the principles of national sovereignty and the American System which he shared, Harry Dexter White must be exonerated.

First, a brief historical account of this figure, for whom there are abundant biographical writings and references, due to his key role in formulating the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, and the infamous accusation which still hangs over him, of being a spy for the Soviet Union.

Harry Dexter White, a trusted advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, drew up the "Plan for a United Nations and Associated Stabilization Fund and a United Nations Bank for Reconstruction and Development" in May, 1942. This was what became the White Plan, presented at Bretton Woods in 1944 by White as leader of the American delegation. With Roosevelt’s support, White’s plan was adopted, prevailing over the Keynes Plan of John Maynard Keynes, leading the British delegation.

White proposed a gold-reserve backed US dollar as the vehicle for low-interest financing of high-technology capital exports for reconstruction and development. This was in the tradition of the American System of Hamilton, Lincoln and William McKinley. Keynes countered with the proposal for a supranational fiat currency, the Bancor. It would not be a vehicle for credit, but usury, resembling the Federal Reserve’s dollar-emissions.

Well, perhaps those who think they already know all about Harry White will ask—How dare a Mexican ask for his exoneration, and for what, besides the fact that he was a Russian spy?

Indeed, I am Mexican, but history validates my boldness in asking for his exoneration. There are so many experts who have written about who White was. I have seen some who describe the accusation as weak, and based only on the relationships he had with the Russians due to his position. That, coupled with his determination to build a fair world order among sovereign nations, which is why Franklin Delano Roosevelt placed his trust in him. And I have seen others who take it for granted that he was indeed a Russian spy.

White appeared before HUAC, the House Un-American Affairs Committee, on Aug 13, 1948, and made a stirring defense against all charges. But he had a heart attack later that day, and then a second one at his New Hampshire farm where he had gone to recuperate, dying on Aug 16 at the age of 55.

White died in 1948 and Roosevelt in 1945—both in the midst of a brutal fight to build a world free of the control of the British financial empire that had led us into two World Wars. Both were subjected to tremendous pressures that could explain their deaths, Together they had made the Bretton Woods Agreement more in line with their idea of a fair World Order, based on the principles for which the US had fought and won its independence from that Empire.

They had managed to defeat John Maynard Keynes, and that was not forgiven. In Mexico there is a saying that "Jalisco does not lose, and when it loses it snatches something." So, upon FDR's death, Truman, the Vice President, assumed the Presidency at the service of the interests of the British Empire. On taking office he began to work to reverse what had been achieved.

After White's death, his detractors still tried to prove he was a Russian spy, but they failed. Today, as then, the accusation is disputed, but it still does damage in a cognitive war to blacken the image of someone the Empire considers its enemy. Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, faced the same accusation from Hillary Clinton. President Trump has faced the same lying accusation for a decade.

The role White played in the historical moment he lived through was one of total confrontation with the power of the British Empire, and he was treated as an enemy that had to be eliminated. This is the context for the accusations against him and his death.

White and the Mexicans

Part of the answer to why White’s exoneration should be proposed lies in his active work with the countries he considered important in the mission entrusted to him by FDR. That mission was to defeat the British Empire in the Bretton Woods Agreement, through postwar reconstruction and the economic recovery of all nations, by integrating them into development projects with technological support, while respecting their sovereignty.

His work led him to establish relationships with senior officials from several nations. It's worth mentioning that Russia was of great interest, as he managed to get it to participate in the talks leading up to the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreement, even though it never signed. He also worked extensively with Brazil, which also participated in the discussions regarding the Agreement.

But it was in Mexico that White found a great ally in defeating Keynes. He collaborated intensely with Eduardo Suarez, who led a delegation made up of Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros, Rodrigo Gomez, Daniel Cosio Villegas and Victor L. Urquidi, They differed from Keynes to such a degree he that he reportedly filed a complaint with the organizers of the event, against the attitude of Cossío Villegas, which caused him to be removed from a session/.

I also consider it necessary to mention that in the Third Commission chaired by Eduardo Suárez, Norway proposed the liquidation of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and it should be noted that White itself also considered this as part of his plans. The proposal was approved, but in the end it did not appear in the signed agreement, leaving its fate unclear. With Roosevelt’s death, President Truman abandoned the idea, and so the BIS survives as the Central Bank of the Central Banks of the world.

This institution is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with representative offices in Mexico and Hong Kong.

The importance of the BIS is that it operates by enforcing the colonialist, speculative, and plundering strategy of the financial oligarchy, which today, as before, imposes its Malthusian vision on the destiny of the human species.

White and a New Bretton Woods 

The exoneration of White must be accompanied by the integration of his vision to truly build a New Bretton Woods. The actions currently being carried out by Donald Trump and his team point in that direction. The application of tariffs; the break with international organizations of the British Empire; the efforts to achieve peace, are all beyond the usual statements by Trump that make sparks fly wherever they hit.

Yet he is facing a millennial enemy, an enemy governed by the oligarchic principle that considers the human being a quasi-beast, that sees the world population as a herd of cattle that must be controlled and culled. Today this millennial enemy is dedicating itself to doing what it does best—confronting us in wars one after another. After the very convenient emergence of the COVID19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine broke out, then the war in the Middle East, and new war fronts are opening such as between India and Pakistan, and more, exploding due to historical differences of a geopolitical and religious nature.

What must be clear is who the enemy is: not the United States, not China, not Russia, not India. It's the British Empire, which, before as now, is activating all the latent conflict points by unleashing wars here and there. It is trying to prevent a rapprochement between the four world powers: the United States, China, Russia, and India. It is doing everything perversely possible to prevent them from sitting down for dialogue. This summit of the four powers is very possible and imperatively necessary amidst the insane war chaos. Reaching agreement depends on the will of all the powers, breaking with the established order under the rules of the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy and its institutions such as the UN, WHO, WTO, the Paris Agreement, etc.

So today we see Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, as well as personnel from their governments, in permanent communication, by telephone or in personal meetings, to settle and resolve their differences, Of course, each country has situations of internal instability that it has to resolve, knowing that the common denominator of all these situations of war and destabilization has a name, the British Empire, which lashes out  like a cornered rat, to survive and keep its oligarchic principle alive in the future of humanity.

One cannot leave this topic without exclaiming, Exonerate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.!

 Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. (1922-2019), great American economist and statesman, identified and confronted the true enemy to defeat, and defended the principles that made possible the existence of his nation as a Republic, principles of the humanist current with the ideas of Socrates, Plato, Nicolas of Cusa, Schiller, Leibniz, Beethoven, and many more. He fought endlessly during his life for a New Bretton Woods, a just international economic regime. 

 He and many of his associates were fiercely harassed, persecuted, accused, and imprisoned by the same forces that harassed, accused, and prosecuted White. The same oligarchic power that today wants to bring down Donald Trump. 

Here are some suggested readings for further reference. 

1. Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury and his Bretton Woods.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/11/27/bessent_were_in_the_middle_of_a_bretton_woods_realignment_id_like_to_be_part_of_it.html

2. William F. Wertz Jr. ... "In addition to the threat of tariffs, I believe other measures should be taken." https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1YYoLgkSYJ/

3. 1980: Jimmy Carter-Jose Lopez Portillo, Zbigniew Brzezinski: “We don’t want a Japan south of the border.” The Tragedy of José López Portillo (published in Dossier Político on October 6, 2022) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16RfCc7mNx/

4. FDR's Bretton Woods and its intention to foster economic development in the relationship between sovereign nations. https://larouchepub.com/lar/2008/3535russias_role.html

5. FDR's 100 Days of Emergency Measures (posted on LaRouchePAC on September 6, 2010) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16afb9icLX/

6. Globalization: A Self-Inflicted Disaster.

https://larouchepub.com/lar/2005/3227berlin_keynote_6-28.html https://larouchepub.com/spanish/lhl_articles/2005/papel_eu.html

7.. "...if the President of the United States says to the President of Russia and the President of China and the government of India and some other countries, 'Let's make this deal!', the United States has the constitutional apparatus and the authority to do it!"

"...perhaps it would be indispensable for Russia, China, and India to urge the United States—and in this case, President Trump—to do just that." https://larouchepub.com/other/2018/4536-wertz-fdr_forgotton_man.html

8. The intricate legacy of Harry Dexter White.

https://www.imf.org/es/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/The-Messy-Legacy-of-Harry-Dexter-White-James-M-Boughton

9.. White proposed the liquidation of the BIS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_for_International_Settlements

13. Generally on Bretton Woods, development, and the role of Mexico and South America.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Forgotten_Foundations of_Bretton_Woods/OIFXAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Eric+Helleiner&printsec=frontcover

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