Harry Dexter White

Harry Dexter White
February 1, 1946

This 28-page single-spaced report was prompted by President Harry Truman's January 23, 1946 appointment of Undersecretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White as U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Truman appointed White despite a November 8, 1945 letter from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a December 4, 1945 FBI report—both transmitted to the White House—naming White as a member of a ring furnishing Government data to Moscow.

The IMF was itself in substantial measure a White creation, where Virginius Frank Coe—who had been hired by White, whom he succeeded as head of Treasury's Office of Monetary Research (OMR)—served as secretary. Hoover was concerned that in this global job, White would “have the power to influence to a great degree deliberations on all international financial arrangements.”

This report not only sets forth details on White, but traces his many connections with other Treasury staffers: Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, Ludwig Ullmann, Solomon Adler, Harold Glasser (who succeeded Coe at OMR), Irving Kaplan, Victor Perlo et al., making it clear that an extensive Red apparatus was at work inside the federal government, and had been for some time past. This memo on White—along with other Bureau reports about him—would draw public notice a few years later when a dispute arose between Eisenhower Attorney General Herbert Brownell and former President Truman as to whether relevant data on the case had been provided to the Truman White House.

See also:

Summary: Harry Dexter White, November 16, 1950
File: Harry Dexter White