Harry Dexter White (October 1892–August 16, 1948) was an American economist and senior U.S. Treasury department official. He was involved in the formation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Venona project later revealed him to be a Soviet secret agent during his time working for the US Government.

Early life

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 30s 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 prevent another worldwide depression.

Treasury Department

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."

According to the son of Henry Morgenthau, Jr. White was the principal architect behind the Morgenthau PlanJohn Dietrich. The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (2002) pg. 17..

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 World War I, and help ensure that capitalism became the dominant post-war economic system.

Accusations of Espionage

On July 31st 1948, Elizabeth Bentley told the House Committee on Un-American Activities that White had been involved in espionage activities on behalf of the Russia during World War II.⁽¹⁾ Whittaker Chambers subsequently testified on August 3 of his association with White in the Communist underground secret apparatus up to 1938.⁽²⁾ Bentley said White's colleagues passed information to her from him. While Chambers claimed he received documents from White, he also said that White was the least productive of his contacts. White testified on August 14 before HUAC. White, recovering from a series of heart attacks, denied being a Soviet agent.

Senator William Jenner's Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments Investigation by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) looked extensively into the problem of unauthorized, uncontrolled and often dangerous power exercised by nonelected officials, specifically White. Part of its report looked into the implementation of Roosevelt administration policy in China and was published as the Morgenthau Diary.⁽⁴⁾ The report stated, "The concentration of Communist sympathizers in the Treasury Department, and particularly the Division of Monetary Research, is now a matter of record. White was the first director of that division; those who succeeded him in the directorship were Frank Coe and Harold Glasser. Also attached to the Division of Monetary Research were William Ludwig Ullman, Irving Kaplan, and Victor Perlo. White, Coe, Glasser, Kaplan, and Perlo were all identified as participants in the Communist conspiracy…"

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.⁽⁶⁾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.⁽⁷⁾ 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 still protests his innocence, however.

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.⁽⁸⁾

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".⁽³⁾

Notes

• Note (1): Elizabeth Bentely Deposition, FBI Silvermaster file, p.27
• Note (2): Testimony of Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)
• Note (3): FBI Memorandum identifying Harry Dexter White as agent Jurist
• Note (4): Guide to the Records of the U.S. Senate at the National Archives, Records of the Morgenthau Diary Study, 1953-65
• Note (5): United States Government Printing Office, Report on the Morgenthau Diaries prepared by the Subcommittee of the Senate Committee of the Judiciary appointed to investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws, Introduction, by Dr. Anthony Kubek, Professor of History at Dallas University, November 1967, two volumes, v.i., pg. 80.
• Note (6): Time Magazine, The White Case Record, Nov. 30, 1953
• Note (7): Chairman's Forward, Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy (1997)
• Note (8): Moynihan Commssion on Government Secrecy, Appendix A, 7. The Cold War (1997)

Resources

• R. Bruce Craig, "Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case," University Press of Kansas (April 2004), hardcover 496 pages, ISBN 0700613110

External links

• Biography of White by the IMF
• FBI Venona file pg.17
• FBI Silvermaster file, p.27
• Time Magazine, The White Case Record, Nov. 30, 1953
• Time Magazine, One Man's Greed, Nov. 23, 1953
• FBI Memorandum identifying Harry Dexter White as agent Jurist

Columbia University alumni | Jewish-American scientists | 1892 births | 1948 deaths | Accused Soviet spies | History of anti-communism in the United States | Venona Appendix A

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