World Bank Group Archives Catalog

Statements, speeches and interviews

This series contains the official statements issued by Robert S. McNamara as President of the World Bank. The material consists of drafts by the President (some handwritten) and drafts prepared by staff (some heavily annotated)' press releases' and occasional background documents. Statements include remarks at the signing of Bank loans' statements at press conferences' airport statements' statements at Annual Meetings and Board meetings' toasts at official dinners including some toasts to McNamara given by Presidents' messages to be delivered at conferences' remarks to the U.S. Congress and messages to staff.

The set also contains transcripts of interviews and newspaper articles. The former include interviews for the NBC Today Show and Meet the Press (1974)' Segment Three (1978)' Bill Moyer's Journal on WNET (1975)' a CBS interview with Peter Jay (1977)' the ABC presentation of A Day in Shrishnagar (1980)' and appearances on the BBC (1978-1980) and on Norwegian' Japanese' German' and French television. There are also interviews for the London Times and Europa (1975)' the New York Times (1978)' Newsweek (1979)' and the Sunday Times (1980).

Subject files

This series contains some significant material on the increase of IBRD capital, the IDA VIth replenishment and the Brandt Commission. Most of the other files concern issues that President McNamara was dealing with at the end of his tenure: FY82 budget, maintenance of value, the PLO observers issue, China's membership, the establishment of an energy affiliate, and the briefing of A.W. Clausen. They often consist of background material, sometimes annotated by McNamara.

Among the materials concerning the IBRD capital increase, a file on the President's paper to the Board, Future role of the World Bank and its associated capital requirements (31 January 1977), includes McNamara's handwritten notes and drafts of memoranda on the informal meetings held with the Executive Directors to discuss the paper, minutes of the informal meetings, Programme and Budgeting J. Wood's IBRD Capital Increase Proposal and other internal memoranda, with annotations by McNamara. There are also minutes of McNamara's discussions with Kuhn Loeb partners and the U.S. Treasury.

The file regarding IDA VIth replenishment contains Senior Vice-President J.B. Knapp's memoranda on country participation, Special Advisor S. El Fishawy's memoranda on the United Arab Emirates contribution, and material on U.S. congressional approval of the IDA VIth authorization bill. The latter includes briefings for McNamara's meetings with Senators and Congressmen, the minutes of McNamara's discussions with U.S. officials Donald Regan, Meyer Rashish and Alexander Haig, and U.S. Executive Director Colbert King's memorandum on President Ronald Reagan's decision to request congressional authorization on full participation (February 1981). The file contains numerous notes, figures and annotations by McNamara.

The Brandt Commission file concerns the creation of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues. It contains McNamara's correspondence with Chairman Willy Brandt and Treasurer Jan P. Pronk, Secretary of the International Development Center David Hopper, Director of the Aspen Institute Harlan Cleveland, and Commissioners Edward Heath and Katharine Graham on the announcement, organization, work, and final report of the Commission. The file contains also two sets of McNamara's handwritten notes of and for conversations with Brandt, Hopper, Cleveland, Executive Directors, and Vice-President of External Affairs William Clark; and his drafts, or annotations of drafts, of the terms of reference, announcement and final report of the Commission. The rest of the file contains Clark's reports on his early 1977 conversations in Europe, McNamara's meetings with Brandt, and the progress of the launching of the Commission, as well as other internal memoranda on McNamara's proposal, the reactions of the Less Developed Countries (LDC) Executive Directors and members of the Group of 77, and the Bank's response to the recommendations of the Commission. Two photographs of Willy Brandt, Katharine Graham, and Shridath Ramphal, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, at the presentation to McNamara on 13 February 1980 of a copy of North-South: A Program for Survival are included.

Subject files

Visvanathan Rajagopalan maintained a series of subject files during his period as Vice President, Operations, and as Special Adviser to the President. Some of the files contain information spanning both periods, while others contain information from only one. Some files are purely topical (environment, for example) while others are on a specific meeting (for example, the file on Bellagio III) or a particular type of meeting (Bank senior staff retreats from 1987 through 1992).

Rajagopalan's files on development effectiveness provide useful background to the Wapenhans report controversy. Finally, during his tenure as Special Adviser Rajagopalan served briefly as the manager of the Information, Technology and Facilities Department, and a number of files deal with ITF management issues.

Subject files

The files in this fragmentary series contain primarily memoranda and reports on a few administrative topics. Some of the items in the files had been accumulated by Khann's predecessor as Special Assistant, Josue Tanaka. Some files are useful because they continue a subject found elsewhere; for example, the environment file in this series complements and extends the environment file found in the Haug subject files. The private sector development file postdates the Conable Presidency.

Subject files

This series provides an unusually good overview of the scope of issues handled by staff assistants in the Office of the President. Unlike the Stanton files in WB IBRD/IDA 03 EXC-11-02 which are focused on reorganization and space needs, the Haug files cover a very wide range of administrative matters and program topics. The Bank's increasing emphasis on environmental and social issues is reflected here, in such files as environment, forestry, population, and women in development. The monitoring of program operations can be traced in such files as annual sector reviews and strategy papers from Bank entities. Haug also had special interests in staff issues, reflected in files on outside interests and activities, the staff association, the staff retirement plan and staff compensation.

Haug brought some files with her to the President's office, including those on the Joint Committee on Staff Compensation and the Outside Interests Committee, from which she resigned when she joined the President's staff. In addition, a few documents from 1991 in the U.S. estate tax file post-date her tenure and presumably were filed by the President's office staff into Haug's subject file after she departed.