----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Re Melvin Reder's discussion in his HOPE article of Keynes's alleged anti-semitism, J Barclay Rosser writes: > The evidence on Keynes has long and quite >publicly been known. I am unaware of anybody >seriously attempting to defend Keynes on this issue, >other than to note his actions to help out certain Jewish >scholars. He was indeed capable not merely of making >lots of nasty and public anti-Semitic remarks, which he >did, but it even affected his interactions at the policy >level on occasion, most famously in the negotiations at >Bretton Woods, where by all reports his abreaction to >the (Jewish) US delegates, White (who was also ironically >by most reports a secret Soviet agent) and Bernstein >actually complicated the rather difficult negotiations, >although one might argue that what had Keynes really >bothered was the fact that at this conference it was really >clear that the US was in charge rather than the UK, and >that White and Bernstein as the bearers of this unpleasant >for Keynes message thus received his wrath in all its forms. I should like to endorse the rather different view of Keynes's relations with Harry Dexter White in the following extract from Brad DeLong's insightful review (cf. his website: www.j-bradford-delong.net) of Robert Skidelsky's third volume on Keynes. Inter alia he writes: What about American malevolence seeking to cripple Britain? It is only fair to counterbalance Skidelsky's view of Harry Dexter White--a complex man, Russian agent of influence, New Dealer, ruthless bureaucratic infighter, accomplished technocrat, and co-architect of the post-World War II international monetary system that played a key role in giving the world economy its fastest generation of growth ever--with John Maynard Keynes's view (p. 323): "With Harry White, as you may suppose, we have been spending a vast amount of time... over-bearing, a bad colleague, always trying to bounce you, aesthetically oppressive... not the faintest conception of how to behave.... At the same time, I have a very great respect and even liking for him. A very able and devoted public servant, carrying an immense burden of responsibility and initiative, of high integrity and of clear-sighted idealistic international purpose, genuinely intending to do his best for the world. Moreover, his over-powering will combined with the fact that he has constructive ideas mean that he does get things done, which few here do. The way to reach him is to respect his purpose, arouse his intellectual interest (it is a great softener to intercourse that it is easy to arouse his genuine interest in the merits of any issue), and to tell him very frankly and firmly without finesse when he has gone off the rails..." Keynes's true adversary wasn't Harry Dexter White. His true adversaries were those who feared any form of international financial management, or those who wanted tight controls over all international economic transactions. But Skidelsky does not see this... Note too that Keynes had similarly abrasive relations with non-Jews such as White House aide Lauchlin Currie - a close friend of Harry White's and who, incidentally, has hotly disputed Keynes's portrayal of White as someone who was "aesthetically oppressive", etc - at Bretton Woods and in the Anglo-American loan negotiations. This (reciprocal) abrasiveness is understandable not in terms of race and religion but because Keynes was such a doughty defender of British interests, while Currie (and the others) were equally properly defending US interests (and, by keeping Congress sweet, also incidentally doing more for Britain than Keynes appreciated). I also want to correct the widespread, much publicised impression (alluded to in Barclay's post) that Harry White was a Soviet spy who, in Skidelsky's words, "wanted to cripple Britain in order to clear the ground for a post-war Anglo-Soviet alliance" (p.xx). There is on this a comprehensive defence of White by James Boughton of the IMF in the current (June) issue of HOPE. I have a similar piece in HOPE Fall 2000 that shows that the allegations of disloyalty against Lauchlin Currie (an Angophile, but who supported FDR's administration line on British imperialism) are equally specious. Roger Sandilands ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]