Invisible Hands: The American Century: 1. Mr Nobody

Summary

The History Podcast — Invisible Hands: The American Century

Episode 1: Mr. Nobody

Date: July 28, 2026
Host: David Dimbleby (BBC Radio 4)

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Overview

In the opening episode of "Invisible Hands: The American Century," David Dimbleby peels back the curtain on how a relatively unknown economist, Harry Dexter White, played a critical role in America's rise to global superpower status after World War II. The episode traces White’s personal journey, the dramatic tensions between him and legendary British economist John Maynard Keynes, and the pivotal Bretton Woods conference that ultimately established the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. All this is set against the backdrop of postwar fear, suspicion, and the birth of a new global order.

The episode is part biography, part political thriller, chronicling the "invisible hands" shaping America’s story from the late 1930s to the immediate postwar years. It explores legacy, controversy, and the sometimes messy mechanics of world-changing ideas.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Harry Dexter White: The Man Behind the Myth

• Opening Vignette:
  Dimbleby introduces White in August 1948, recently returned from testimony before HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), exhausted, marked by suspicion and paranoia, and dying suddenly at 55 (00:50 – 02:28).
• Lingering Conspiracies:
  "Stories grew up around his death. Paranoid conspiracy theories... He faked his death, he commits suicide." — Claire Pinkham (02:30) White’s family lived under a shadow, constantly feeling watched (03:03), all growing from the suspicion that Harry was a Soviet spy—a charge he always denied (03:23).

White’s Mission and Vision

• A Complicated Legacy:
  “But it turns out the real story of this man is much more complicated. Because... before the state turned against him, Harry Dexter White, this supposed traitor had a vision.” — Dimbleby (04:23)
• Foundational Role:
  James Boughton calls White "probably the most important person nobody ever heard of" (04:45).
• Building a New World Order:
  White’s vision: A cooperative, U.S.-led postwar world, fundamentally built around economic stability to ensure peace (13:08 – 13:55).

America’s Reluctant Emergence

• Isolationist Roots:
  Dimbleby provides context: America’s original posture, heeding Washington’s warning to avoid “foreign entanglements,” and strong reluctance to intervene in European affairs (10:16 – 10:44).
• Shift by Crisis:
  Pearl Harbor transforms U.S. policy. “Pearl Harbor changed everything... you're not going to walk anymore, you’re going to run.” — James Boughton (14:53)

The Clash of Titans: Keynes vs. White

• Contrasts in Biography and Worldview:
  “There was no one else quite like John Maynard Keynes.” — Ed Conway (19:08)
  “Keynes moved in a world of privilege... Harry Dexter White is someone whose entire life, his biography is about effort. They were chalk and cheese.” — John Maynard Keynes (as summarized) (20:27 – 20:35)
• The Pound vs. The Dollar:
  White sought to supplant the British pound with the U.S. dollar at the heart of the world financial system. Keynes, on the other hand, wanted a neutral new international currency to halt America’s ascent (21:14 – 22:03).
• Negotiating Showdown:
  “You know, there were like two boxers circling around each other.” — James Boughton (23:07)
  Recounting clashes, including White’s legendary put-down: “We will try to produce something which your highness can understand.” (23:28)

The Bretton Woods Conference (24:34 – 30:54)

• Grand Setting, High Stakes:
  An unprecedented gathering of 44 nations in New Hampshire—historians and journalists describe the tension, as well as the "off-the-record" wheeling and dealing (25:26 – 26:14).
• Inside Baseball:
  White, working behind the scenes, scripts outcomes in America’s favor. “White scripted the conference like a kabuki play. It was really remarkable how he did this.” — Ben Steele (27:09)
• Turning Point:
  White exploits a health crisis sidelining Keynes to quietly amend the foundational agreement—replacing vague references to "gold convertible currency" with “US dollars” at the last moment (28:54 – 29:29).

  “With Keynes out of action, White and his team then went through the entire 96 pages and changed gold convertible currency to US dollars.” — Ben Steele (29:21)

• Outcome:
  “All of a sudden, out of the clouds emerged the fact that the dollar was at the heart of the Bretton woods system.” — John Maynard Keynes (30:08)
  “White had won. The dollar was now to be the center of the new world order.” — Dimbleby (30:17)
• Aftermath:
  “White was ecstatic at the end of the conference. The outcome at Bretton Woods would be very positive for the United States... he knew he had succeeded.” — James Boughton (30:43)

The Fall

• Suspicion and Betrayal:
  Despite his triumph, White is destroyed by allegations of being a communist and Soviet sympathizer—largely for his belief in cooperative engagement with the Soviet Union (31:17 – 31:38).
• Legacy in Crisis:
  The question hangs: can America's myth of moral leadership survive such contradictions and the fractures of the 21st century?

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was in our family's DNA to understand that you could be observed at any time.” — Claire Pinkham, on the atmosphere of paranoia post–HUAC allegations (03:16)
• “I am not now and never have been a Communist, nor even close to becoming one.” — Harry Dexter White testimony (03:51)
• “America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere.” — Ben Steele quoting the “free world” ideal (07:13)
• “Keynes was someone who was almost born into greatness. He never had to try... And Harry Dexter White is someone whose entire life, his biography is about effort... They were chalk and cheese...” — Ed Conway (20:21 – 20:35)
• “White scripted the conference like a kabuki play... But behind the scenes, White and his own technicians were writing the script.” — Ben Steele (27:09)
• “With Keynes out of action, White and his team went through the entire 96 pages and changed gold convertible currency to US dollars.” — Ben Steele (29:21)
• “All of a sudden, out of the clouds emerged the fact that the dollar was at the heart of the Bretton woods system.” — John Maynard Keynes (30:08)
• “He believes that cooperation is what makes humans great. And that included the Soviets.” — Claire Pinkham, on White’s inclusive vision (31:32)
• “What happened in Stalin’s time was absolutely nightmarish. It was totalitarianism at its most hideous.” — Archive/narrator, foreshadowing the next episode (31:42)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:50 — Introduction of Harry Dexter White; setting in 1948
• 02:30 — On the suspicions, conspiracies around White’s death
• 04:45 — James Boughton: “most important person nobody ever heard of”
• 10:16 – 10:44 — Isolationist America’s foundational attitudes
• 14:40 — Pearl Harbor, turning point for U.S. engagement
• 20:21 – 20:35 — Contrast: Keynes vs. White
• 23:07 – 23:28 — Personal clashes between Keynes and White
• 24:34 – 30:17 — Bretton Woods summit: setup, drama, outcome
• 29:21 — The “gold convertible currency” sleight of hand
• 30:54 — Aftermath: White’s victory gives way to disgrace
• 31:32 — White’s faith in international cooperation, including the Soviets

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Episode Flow & Tone

The narrative is rich with archival voices, personal recollections, and expert commentary. Dimbleby’s tone is insightful yet dramatic, seamlessly weaving historical material with personal testimony to highlight how complex, flawed individuals like White fundamentally shaped the modern world.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode is essential listening for anyone wanting to understand how postwar America’s superpower status was engineered not just by presidents or generals, but by bureaucrats, economists, and “invisible hands.” It’s a story of ambition, vision, intrigue, and the dark cloud of suspicion—revealing the precarious roots of a world order we often take for granted.

Transcript

[David Dimbleby]

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[David Dimbleby]

It's a baking hot day in August 1948. A man called Harry Dexter White is on his way back to his family farmhouse in New Hampshire, a little place called Blueberry Hill.

[Claire Pinkham]

That was one of the places where he was happiest, and that's where his family already was.

[David Dimbleby]

That's Harry's granddaughter, Claire Pinkham.

[Claire Pinkham]

So as soon as he could, he took a train from Washington, D.C. to Fitzwilliam Depot, which was the closest stop to Blueberry Hill.

[David Dimbleby]

Harry had just been in Washington, D.C. where he had appeared before a powerful congressional committee.

[Claire Pinkham]

And I think he put his life and soul into the statement that he made before huac.

[David Dimbleby]

HUAC was the House UN American Activities Committee. Harry had been summoned to give evidence at one of its hearings.

[Claire Pinkham]

He was fighting for his life in many ways.

[David Dimbleby]

Harry's only 55, but he looks much older. His hair's thinning, and his teeth, which count for so much in America, show signs of decay. Twelve months before the hearings, he'd had a heart attack after several punishing years working as an economist for the US Treasury. When Harry gets off the train in New Hampshire, his wife can see that he doesn't look well. He took straight to his bed, and two days later, he was dead. And that's when something strange started happening.

[Claire Pinkham]

Stories grew up around his death. Paranoid conspiracy theories of he didn't actually die. He faked his death, he commits suicide.

[David Dimbleby]

And the stories persisted through the decades. Fear and suspicion followed Harry's children and grandchildren like a bad smell.

[Claire Pinkham]

When I was in elementary school, my dad took me aside one day and said, if anybody ever stops you on the street and starts asking you questions about yourself, you don't have to answer.

[David Dimbleby]

Claire's family felt they were being watched.

[Claire Pinkham]

Whether it be someone following you down the street or in the car or Tapping your phones or opening your mail

[David Dimbleby]

as though they were a target.

[Claire Pinkham]

It was in our family's DNA to understand that you could be observed at any time.

[David Dimbleby]

All this fear and suspicion because at that hearing of the House UN American Activities Committee, Harry Dexter White had been labeled, marked, accused of being the worst thing an American could be accused of being a Soviet spy. They were charges which he emphatically denied.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

Answering charges of confessed spy Elizabeth Bentley and editor Whitaker Chambers is ex treasury officer Harry White. I should like to state at the start that I am not now and never have been a Communist, nor even close to becoming one.

[David Dimbleby]

But to no avail. Harry Dexter White's name would live in infamy. Branded a traitor to his country, Harry

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

Dexter White was known to be a communist spy by the very people who appointed him. He lied to the American people.

[David Dimbleby]

But it turns out the real story of this man is much more complicated. Because what Claire didn't know about her grandfather as she was growing up is that before the state turned against him, Harry Dexter White, this supposed traitor had a vision.

[James Boughton]

He's probably the most important person nobody ever heard of.

[David Dimbleby]

A vision of a new world rising from the ruins of the old.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

Representatives of 28 countries meet in the conference room of Washington's State Department. The signing of the Bretton woods monetary agreement.

[David Dimbleby]

It was a vision that would turn America into a superpower.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

We shall pay any price, bear any burden, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty and

[David Dimbleby]

remake the world into what it is today.

[Political Figure/Commentator (possibly Bill Clinton or a narrator voice)]

This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the earth. And this is the Golden Age of America.

[David Dimbleby]

I'm David Dimbleby and from the history podcast on BBC Radio 4, this is Invisible Hands, series two, the American Century. The story of how, in the years after World War II, the United States rose to become a superpower at the head of a new global order and the invisible hands that guided it. Episode 1 Mr. Nobody I've reported on America for decades. I've covered elections and interviewed presidents about the burning issues of the day. When you said you hadn't had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, did you seriously, when you said that, not consider oral sex to be a sexual relationship?

[Political Figure/Commentator (possibly Bill Clinton or a narrator voice)]

First of all, I never discuss what did or didn't happen. I don't believe in discussing it and won't.

[David Dimbleby]

I don't usually talk to presidents about their sex lives. Bill Clinton was an exception. What really interests me is their Vision for America.

[Political Figure/Commentator (possibly Bill Clinton or a narrator voice)]

What I wanted America to do was to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom and security and prosperity, helping to integrate this interdependent world.

[David Dimbleby]

That idea is one we've all grown used to, promoted by American leaders for decades. Because the United States, whatever our faults may be, is the hope of the world. We have before us, the opportunity to forge a new world order.

[Ben Steele]

America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere.

[David Dimbleby]

The idea, of course, is that America is at the head of the free world, a free world where America leads, but everyone benefits.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

So the United States is and remains the one indispensable nation.

[David Dimbleby]

And yet today, that idea is in crisis.

[Intrigue Podcast Narrator]

President Trump has repeated his threat to take over Greenland.

[Political Figure/Commentator (possibly Bill Clinton or a narrator voice)]

From this day forward, it's going to

[David Dimbleby]

be only America first.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

President Trump says the U.S. carried out large scale strikes on Venezuela overnight.

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Do you see any checks on your power?

[Political Figure/Commentator (possibly Bill Clinton or a narrator voice)]

Yeah, there's one thing. My own morality.

[David Dimbleby]

President Trump posted a truly apocalyptic message this morning. He said, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. And so now is a better time than ever to ask where this vision came from in the first place. A vision born out of the ashes of World War II. A vision. A vision of America as the leader of the free world. A global superpower. A vision shaped by people you've probably never heard of. The Chekhov obsessed bureaucrat who wrote the most important telegram in history. The Calvinist spy who created a covert war machine. The American Rasputin who led the country to military disaster. In the 20th century, these invisible hands wrote the story that America came to believe about itself. A story of moral leadership leading to prosperity and peace. A story that maybe has run out of steam. The story of the American century. It's an American century that actually begins around the time I was born in the late 1930s. Another moment when it felt as though the world was falling apart.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

The now powerful Nazi party elects a scapegoat for the troubles of the fatherland. Jews once more become the special victims of general disaster.

[David Dimbleby]

Hitler was on the rise and Europe was in crisis.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

The fateful hour of 11 has struck and Britain's final warning to Hitler having been ignored. A state of war once more exists between Great Britain and Germany.

[David Dimbleby]

And everyone wanted to know what America was going to do. Was it going to get involved? Was it going to come to the rescue of Europe?

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

Another war? Not for me this time. America should keep out, and I know I will. I haven't the slightest idea of European affairs.

[David Dimbleby]

The answer, an emphatic no. And this attitude among Americans wasn't anything new. In fact, it went back to America's very first president, George Washington. He had warned against foreign entanglements. America was founded on the very idea it was going to be different from Europe. They were the old empire, America was the new. And what happened across the ocean wasn't their problem anymore.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

I think that this country should heed the advice of its vice president and avoid all foreign entanglements.

[David Dimbleby]

But there was a minority in America who wanted to change that, who thought that America needed to cooperate with the rest of the world, not reject it. One of those people was a low level treasury bureaucrat. His name, you guessed it, Harry Dexter White.

[James Boughton]

Well, when I became the IMF historian, people started asking me about Harry Dexter White because his life story was a complete mystery.

[David Dimbleby]

This is James Boughton.

[James Boughton]

I'm the former historian of the International Monetary Fund and I'm also the biographer of Harry Dexter White.

[David Dimbleby]

Harry Dexter White would become the founding father of the grandly named International Monetary Fund, one of the pillars of the international order. But he started from nothing. His parents were Jewish. They'd fled discrimination in Lithuania and they'd settled in Boston.

[James Boughton]

It was a time when there were lots and lots of European immigrants coming into the United States.

[David Dimbleby]

The these were people fleeing old European empires that had brought them nothing but misery. And from an early age, Harry had an instinctive dislike for these ancient regimes. America was new. It promised success if you worked hard and were determined. But Harry's parents wouldn't live to see their youngest child realize his American dream.

[James Boughton]

As a teenager. First his father died and then his mother died. And so he was an orphan and really had to make his own way in the world.

[David Dimbleby]

Harry first of all took over his father's hardware store and then he enlisted in the army. At 24, he was sent to Europe after America joined World War I.

[James Boughton]

He had to really work for everything. And I think that made him into kind of a scrappy personality. He was somebody who knew what he wanted. He was going to do whatever it took to get what he wanted.

[David Dimbleby]

And by the time he returned from the war, he knew what he wanted was to become an economist. He had a sharp brain and he had an idea, one shaped by his experiences. And in the First World War he came up with this theory that war wasn't a product of bad diplomacy or national hatreds. It all sprang from the nature of the global economy.

[James Boughton]

If you could maintain strong economic cooperation between countries, those countries would not go to war with each other. In other words, if all countries are prosperous, then you'll be much less likely to have war.

[David Dimbleby]

And in Harry Dexter White's mind, it was the role of America to make this happen. America was an economic powerhouse, the richest country in the world. And it was America's duty to take its place as a global superpower to lead the world to towards peace and prosperity.

[James Boughton]

In the summer of 1934, White was invited to join the staff of the U.S. treasury.

[David Dimbleby]

But his vision of an America leading the world to a better future was out of sync with public opinion until December 7, 1941.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this important bulletin from the United French Washington. The White House announces Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

[David Dimbleby]

America was under attack and now it was at war.

[James Boughton]

Pearl harbor changed everything. And so it was like you're walking along and you're walking along and all of a sudden you look back and there's a bear running along behind you, chasing you. And so you're not going to walk anymore, you're going to run.

[David Dimbleby]

America's entry into the war transformed the Allies hope of winning. They were the most powerful army in the world after all. But Harry Dexter White's thoughts were elsewhere.

[James Boughton]

White's immediate reaction to Pearl harbor was that it was really time to go to work.

[David Dimbleby]

This was his moment, his chance to sell his vision of a new cooperative, peaceful, American led world.

[James Boughton]

It would have been very easy to say look, we need to focus on winning the war and after the war then we'll think about what we need to do next. And that's what most people inside the US government were doing. He got a lot of pushback from the State Department who said it's way too early to think about this. And he plunged ahead. He said no, no, no, we need to have a plan in place before the war is over.

[David Dimbleby]

Harry was creating his blueprint for a new world order and really laid out

[James Boughton]

a vision for what kind of an international economic policy the US should follow going forward.

[David Dimbleby]

He wanted to create a post war world that would be stable and open and most importantly led by the United States. The only problem was on the other side of the Atlantic, another power was coming up with its own plan. A country that until recently ruled almost a third of the globe. A place that was once America's colonial master and represented a system Harry Dexter White reviled.

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[David Dimbleby]

Back in the 1980s, I made a television series for the BBC called An Ocean Apart. It told the story of how America replaced Britain as the dominant world power. In that series, we showed how Winston Churchill had celebrated when America joined the war.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

The British and American people will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.

[Winston Churchill]

It was a moment of triumph for Winston Churchill. After 18 months of standing alone against Hitler, Britain now had as an ally the most powerful country in the Western world.

[David Dimbleby]

But reporting that series, it was clear that America's entry into the war was just the start. The real battle was yet to come. The battle to remake the post war world.

[Winston Churchill]

Churchill was determined that Britain should remain the senior partner, that she should call all the shots.

[David Dimbleby]

Churchill wanted Britain to remain top dog with America, so to speak, wagging its tail behind us. Sounds fanciful, even delusional, with America being the richer and bigger partner. But Churchill thought he had an ace up his sleeve. And this is where the story becomes not just the story of Harry Dexter White, but the story of another man. A man who represented the old world as much as Harry represents the new.

[John Maynard Keynes]

There was no one else quite like John Maynard Keynes.

[David Dimbleby]

John Maynard Keynes, Churchill's secret weapon.

[John Maynard Keynes]

He was truly world famous.

[David Dimbleby]

This is Ed Conway, economics editor at Sky News and author of the Summit.

[John Maynard Keynes]

His wife was one of the world's most famous ballet dancers, Lidia Lopakova. When, when he got married, it was on the front pages of the newspapers. He was a celebrity. People wanted to know about him and his life.

[David Dimbleby]

But Keynes reputation was built on much more than just glamour.

[John Maynard Keynes]

He created a whole school of economics, a whole genre. He was seen as something of an intellectual prophet.

[David Dimbleby]

And so in this battle over who would lead the post war world, Keynes was chosen to fight Britain's corner against America, against Harry Dexter White.

[James Boughton]

From whatever angle you, if you read newspapers, you knew who John Maynard Keynes was. Nobody knew who Harry Dexter White was.

[David Dimbleby]

It quickly became clear these two men weren't going to agree with each other. They were like two planets colliding.

[John Maynard Keynes]

Keynes was someone who was almost born into greatness. He never had to try.

[David Dimbleby]

Keynes moved in a world of privilege, educated at Cambridge, the surrounded by these artists and aristocrats.

[John Maynard Keynes]

And Harry Dexter White is someone whose entire life his biography is about effort. They were chalk and cheese and it was always gonna be a difficult personal relationship.

[David Dimbleby]

But it was more than just personal.

[James Boughton]

White and Keynes both wanted to look out for their own country's interests.

[David Dimbleby]

And for White, this meant one thing shifting the center of power from Britain to America.

[John Maynard Keynes]

Harry Dexter White looked at British history and the empire with disgust and as a lesson for how not to do it.

[David Dimbleby]

And White had an idea, an idea that would end up changing world history and help to create the new world order he was so obsessed with. For decades, the most important currency in the world was the British pound. And this meant London had grown into one of the globe's biggest financial centres. Harry White was arguing for radical change

[John Maynard Keynes]

and the system that presided in the 1930s was dysfunctional and you needed to have some sort of order in the global economic system. And in White's case, he felt that order would come from the US dollar and the dollar would be the linchpin of everything else.

[David Dimbleby]

Every trade, every transaction countries made did not be in pounds but in dollars. And this would create a stable system and would ensure America was at its center. Keynes wanted something else and he actually wasn't arguing it should still be the British pound. He wanted a brand new international currency. This would stop America from becoming a global superpower and it would slow the transfer of power from Britain to the us. This wasn't just argument about currencies, it was a struggle over who would write the rules of the post war world. And so in the autumn of 1943, while the war raged on, the two men met in Washington in a conference room at the U.S. treasury.

[James Boughton]

You know, there were like two boxes circling around each other.

[John Maynard Keynes]

Keynes at one point described White as overbearing, a bad colleague, always trying to bounce to you with a harsh rasping voice.

[James Boughton]

What he meant was that whatever Keynes would say, White would come back with something contradicting him or challenging him.

[John Maynard Keynes]

There are accounts of them shouting at each other at the top of their voices. I mean, at one point, wet one of the negotiations isn't going particularly well. Kane says, this is intolerable, we need to break off the negotiations. And White says, well, we will try to produce something which your highness can understand.

[David Dimbleby]

In the end, they couldn't agree. And so they decided to do something unprecedented, something never before seen in the history of the world. Bang in the middle of the war, while the armies were still fighting across the planet, they decided to have a conference. And it wouldn't just be Keynes and white there, 44 nations from all around the world would come to it and they'd have to decide what the future of the world economy would look like. Keynes vision or White's? Britain's or America's?

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

At Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, delegates from 44 Allied and Associate countries arrived for the opening of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.

[David Dimbleby]

The conference called by Keynes and White would take place in the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. I've actually been there. I remember a long drive all the way from Boston, went on and on and on up into the north and then we came into this valley and this vast white wooden structure, the hotel itself looking like an ocean liner that somehow got stranded up there in the woods.

[Winston Churchill]

For three weeks the best financial brains among the Allied powers grappled with the problems of how to create a better post war world. They wanted to get away from the old cycle of slump and depression. They had a vision of steady growth based on international cooperation.

[David Dimbleby]

There were over 700 delegates, finance ministers, economists come from every continent, from every country fighting on the Allied side. The atmosphere inside the hotel was intense. You can just imagine it. Rustling paper, cigarette smoke, people sweating over the detail, the arguments spilling out into the corridors, the negotiations of course, not stopping. When formal sessions ended, they went on underground to the bar of the hotel known as the Moon Room.

[John Maynard Keynes]

They would get, you know, absolutely off their faces, for want of a better phrase, and sing to each other and carouse and then get a few hours sleep and then start the next day again.

[David Dimbleby]

And at the center of all this was Keynes the superstar, the celebrity. Keynes, the poster boy of the conference. Here's the man himself.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

We've been working quietly away in the cool woods and mountains of New Hampshire and I doubt, I doubt if the world yet understands a bigger thing we are bringing to birth.

[David Dimbleby]

The British might have had the brains, but they weren't reckoning with the guile of one man. One man who was determined to bring his vision of the new world into being. Harry Dexter White. And remember, Dexter White had one clear goal.

[Ben Steele]

Harry Dexter White wants an international monetary system based on the US dollar.

[David Dimbleby]

That's Ben Steele, author of the Battle of Bretton Woods.

[Ben Steele]

White scripted the conference like a kabuki play. It was really remarkable how he did this. So it appeared on the surface if you were walking around to be a very intensive conference with lots of commissions and committees under commissions where there was a lot of debate. But behind the scenes, White and his own technicians were writing the script.

[David Dimbleby]

This began to annoy Keynes. He had arrived at the conference not in the best of health.

[John Maynard Keynes]

He'd had heart issues for quite some time.

[David Dimbleby]

Then one day Keynes learnt that Harry Dexter White had made a decision without consulting him. He was furious. He ran up the service stairs of the hotel, past the waiters and the hotel staff and burst into the room of Harry's boss.

[John Maynard Keynes]

He shouted at him, he got very red in the face and then he left. And it was on the way downstairs after that meeting that he collapsed.

[David Dimbleby]

Confusion spread throughout the hotel. London was cabled. Reuters reported that the great John Maynard Keynes was dead. In reality he wasn't. But he was forced to withdraw, to rest and to recover.

[John Maynard Keynes]

No one knew whether he was actually going to resurface.

[David Dimbleby]

And this is the moment Harry White seized his opportunity to make the dollar the global currency of choice for the duration of the conference. Delegates had been working through a document that everyone would need to sign up to at the end. And some of it was pretty vague.

[Ben Steele]

Repeatedly through the document you would see the phrase gold convertible currency and it was never defined.

[David Dimbleby]

With time running out, the delegates wanted to know, and it's not a surprise, what does gold convertible currency actually mean?

[Ben Steele]

It didn't have any meaning. Nobody knew what a gold convertible currency was.

[David Dimbleby]

With Keynes out of action, White and

[Ben Steele]

his team then went through the entire 96 pages and changed gold convertible currency to US dollars.

[David Dimbleby]

They turned this vague phrase, gold convertible currency, into the thing they really wanted, which was the dollar as the currency of choice. And they only revealed this wording to the delegates at the conference at the very last possible moment as they were

[Ben Steele]

being kicked out of the hotel at the very end. And Keynes later claimed that he hadn't had time to read the final act before he was kicked out. So, you know, the British remarkably wound up signing on for something they had resisted fiercely for the two year run up to the conference.

[John Maynard Keynes]

All of a sudden, out of the clouds emerged the fact that the dollar was at the heart of the Bretton woods system.

[David Dimbleby]

White had won. The dollar was now to be the center of the new World order. Every time a country wanted to trade, they'd use not the pound, but the dollar. America's role in the world had been transformed.

[John Maynard Keynes]

You look back and this was the moment where American superpower status was really kind of enshrined in the global system.

[James Boughton]

White was ecstatic at the end of the conference. The outcome at Bretton woods would be very, very positive for the United States. And I think he knew that he had succeeded.

[David Dimbleby]

America would not go back into isolation after the war. It would lead the world. And this was what Harry Dexter White had worked for for years. And yet, just four years later, Harry Dexter White was would be dead in disgrace, his legacy ruined by a devastating allegation.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

I am not now and never have been a Communist.

[David Dimbleby]

It was an allegation that came about because, despite White's victory at Bretton woods, he had what would come to be seen as a fatal flaw.

[Claire Pinkham]

He believes that cooperation is what makes humans great. And that included the Soviets.

[David Dimbleby]

The Soviet Union.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

What happened in Stalin's time was absolutely nightmarish. It was totalitarianism at its most hideous.

[David Dimbleby]

That's next time. Invisible Hands. The American Century is a samizdat audio production for BBC Radio 4 and the History podcast. It's hosted by me, David Dimbleby. The producer is Red Z Bernard. The executive producers are Joe Sykes and Dasha Licitsina. Story editing by Joe Sykes, Dasha Licitsina and Peggy Sutton. Sound design by Jeff Emtman. The historical consultant is David Milne and the commissioning editor at Radio 4 is Dan Clark.

[Political Figure/Commentator (possibly Bill Clinton or a narrator voice)]

This is a nightmare.

[James Boughton]

I need to get out of here because I do not want them to see me.

[Intrigue Podcast Narrator]

A search across borders in some tricky situations.

[James Boughton]

Shoot.

[David Dimbleby]

There's a boat in the back of that car.

[Intrigue Podcast Narrator]

Yeah, there is.

[David Dimbleby]

No, no, no, no.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

Don't get out.

[Intrigue Podcast Narrator]

Watching smugglers who. Who bring thousands of people to the uk.

[David Dimbleby]

They have guns, they have knives, they have no shame.

[Intrigue Podcast Narrator]

And at the top, a man who keeps his identity well hidden.

[David Dimbleby]

If they know I'm talking about him, they come tonight.

[Narrator/Archive Voice (possibly Harry Dexter White or related historical figures)]

They will kill me.

[James Boughton]

Pop, pop, pop, pop.

[Intrigue Podcast Narrator]

Can we find out who he is? From Radio 4, this is Intrigue To Catch a King. Listen first on BBC Sounds.

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