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Records of the Office of the President

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Records of the Office of the President

  • WB IBRD/IDA EXC
  • Fonds
  • 1947 - 1995

The records of cover the entire span of administrative and substantive activities of the Bank. Particularly useful is the documentation of public relations activities by the presidents and coordination efforts with outside partners. Briefing books for country visits and for meetings at the Bank's annual meeting often provide good overviews of issues as well as reports on the economic and political situation in a country. Unique materials on major Bank studies and commissions, such as the Pearson and Brandt Commissions and the Task Force on Portfolio Management (Wapenhans Report), are also found in the records of the president's office.

The McNamara, Conable and Preston records include both the records of the president and the records of his immediate staff. Some staff members had specific mandates and their files are key sources for those activities, while other presidential assistants played a more general role in handling topics for the president.

Office of the President

Records of President Lewis T. Preston

Lewis T. Preston became President of the World Bank on 1 September 1991 and resigned on 4 May 1995. Relatively few records from his term exist. One of Preston's first decisions was to suspend the President's Council, and as a result there are no formal records of the interaction of the highest levels of management. Furthermore, Preston was in ill health and retired before finishing his term. He continued to make speeches and undertook some business travel, but the files on those activities are noticeably fuller in the early years of his tenure. No subject files exist, nor do files on his liaison activities with United Nations organizations, non-government institutions, and international banks. The few files on liaison with the U.S. Government are thin, but there is additional information on this relationship in the records of the Counselor to the President, Matthew F. McHugh.

The most complete files are those on Member countries. These include information on Bank projects in the countries, reports of discussions with country representatives, agendas for meetings, and other representational matters. The files on the Annual Meetings have some unusually interesting briefings for Preston's meetings with financial and other institutions.

The important records of the Portfolio Management Task Force (Wapenhans Report) and the follow-up to it are part of the records of the Special Adviser to the President, Visvanathan Rajagopalan.

Note that a small portion of the Chronological File series contains correspondence and executive memoranda records from the period when Ernest Stern served as acting President. These date from February 1 to May 31 of 1995.

Records of President Eugene R. Black

This series contains the records of Eugene R. Black as U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank, 1947-1949, and President, 1949-1962. They are arranged in five file categories: general correspondence, congratulatory correspondence, honorary degrees, speeches, and travel.

The general correspondence file contains exchanges with U.S. and foreign government officials (especially U.K. officials), private bankers, lawyers, foundation officials and friends, arranged alphabetically by surname of correspondent. Among the notable correspondents are U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. Senators J.W. Fulbright and Hubert Humphrey, British Prime Minister Harold McMillan, and U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammerskjold. The alphabetical correspondence file is followed by one file marked personal action covering the period from September through December 1960; it contains letters congratulating Black on the publication of his book, The Diplomacy of Economic Development, and wishing him recovery from surgery.

The congratulatory correspondence concerns Black's appointment as Executive Director and subsequent appointment and reappointments as President of the World Bank.

A single file contains correspondence on honorary degrees awarded to Black.

The speech file contains letters of invitation and appreciation and, in some cases, the texts of the speeches. Speeches given include commencement addresses, lectures to professional associations and private organizations, and addresses to the UN Economic and Social Council.

Thetravel file contains correspondence relating to tours Black took as U.S. Executive Director and as Bank President to familiarize himself with present and future member countries' economic and political situations and to meet national leaders. It includes letters of invitation, itineraries, thank you notes, as well as letters and memoranda on the purposes and results of particular trips. Two files contain the records of Black's 1948 trip to Indonesia (then the Netherlands East Indies) shortly before it obtained independence, including background material on Indonesia's economy and recent political developments, newspaper articles, UN documents, photographs, and letters from government officials, business executives and Black evaluating the situation in Indonesia. Other travel files contain information on the Bank's role in the settlement of the Suez Canal dispute (1958-1959).

Records of President George D. Woods

The records of the Presidency of George D. Woods (January 1963 until April 1968) primarily concern international relations, including both briefings and travel. The correspondence file, while small, has several unusually revealing items, as do the retained copies of outgoing letters and memoranda. The background papers on each country that are found in the annual meeting briefing files provide useful snapshots of the situation of that country at that time.

Records of President John J. McCloy

The records of President McCloy consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence between President McCloy, the U.S. Executive Director of the Bank, U.S. political leaders, U.S. public officials, and prominent business leaders. The correspondence address topics of Bank operations and lending.

Records of the Vice President and Special Adviser to the President, Visvanathan Rajagopalan

Visvanathan Rajagopalan was the Vice President for Sector and Operations Policy when President Preston asked him to join the President's staff as Senior Adviser. Rajagopalan held this post for the year 1993, retiring at the end of December. During his time in the President's office, Rajagopalan had 2 principal tasks: manage the follow-up to the Portfolio Management Task Force report and chair the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. In addition he spent a brief period in the summer of 1993 as the acting head of the Information, Technology and Facilities Department.

The most important records in this subfonds are those of the Portfolio Management Task Force. These records are essential to understanding the work of the task force and the controversy that followed its report.

Office of the President -- Lewis T. Preston -- Visvanathan Rajagopalan (Vice President and Special Adviser to the President)

Records of the Executive Assistant to the President, Marianne Haug

Marianne Haug served as Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary of the President's Council from May 1987 until May 1990. She was employed by various units in the Bank prior to joining the President's office; some of the records in this sub-fonds predate her service in the Executive Office.

Haug's files cover a mix of administrative and program topics. The series of subject files contains a very broad overview of topics that she handled for the President, as well as topics in which she was especially interested, such as the files of the Bank's Outside Interests Committee, 1981-1987, on which she served. The files on environment, forestry, and MIGA are very full; the series also contains copies of speeches by senior members of the Bank, showing that the President's staff was tracking the public statements. Several files, such as Centrally planned economies and Eastern Europe show the Bank's response to the changing situation in Eastern Europe.

The series on budget policy is useful to understand the internal development of budget packages from the point of view of the President's office. Haug's series on the Bank's 1987 reorganization is the fullest in the President's office, covering both the original reorganization and the fine tuning in 1989. Her extensive chronological file dates from July 1985 through May 1991.

Office of the President -- Barber B. Conable -- Marianne Haug (Executive Assistant to the President)

Records of the Special Assistant to the President, Anapum Khanna

Anapum Khanna was appointed as Special Assistant to the President in July 1989 and stayed through the end of Conable's term and into the first months of the Preston term. He succeeded Marianne Haug as the Secretary to the President's Council, and the primary series of records in this sub-fonds are the working files Khanna accumulated while handling Council business.

Office of the President -- Barber B. Conable -- Anapum Khanna (Special Assistant to the President)

Records of the Counselor to the President, Matthew F. McHugh

Matthew F. McHugh joined the President's office staff in May 1993. His files reflect a strong interest in and responsibility for external affairs, in particular the Bank's relationship with the U.S. Government and the 50th anniversary celebration of the World Bank. These records are useful for insight into the liaison activities of the President's office because similar records do not exist in the President's own files.

McHugh also served as Counselor to the President during James Wolfensohn's first term as President. McHugh continued to use and add items to some of his files from the Preston period, particularly the country files. Those McHugh files are among the records of the Wolfensohn Presidency, and they should be consulted for further information on the Preston years.

Office of the President -- Lewis T. Preston -- Matthew F. McHugh (Counselor to the President)

Records of the Executive Counselor to the President, J. William Stanton

When Conable became President, he appointed J. William Stanton to serve as Counselor to the President. Stanton held that post throughout Conable's term.

The records of Stanton's office focus on two of the major administrative issues of Conable's Presidency: the 1987 reorganization of the Bank, and the acquisition and retrofitting of the Bank's Washington buildings. They must be read in conjunction with the President's Administrative files and the files of Special Assistant Marianne Haug; for example, the Haug and Stanton records both have series on the 1987 reorganization, which does not appear in the President's files, but the President's Administrative files have the records of the 1989 fine-tuning of the reorganization. Taken together, the entire picture emerges.

Office of the President -- Barber B. Conable -- J. William Stanton (Executive Counselor to the President)

Chronological [outgoing] files

This series consists of copies of the outgoing letters and memoranda of George D. Woods and correspondence handled for President Woods by his personal assistants George C. Wishart and Rainer B. Steckhan. It includes correspondence sent on substantive issues of development assistance, memoranda to files, internal memoranda of the Bank and social and public relations messages.

Letters to foreign heads of state, government officials, banks, development institutions and academics regarding particular loans and projects, missions, technical assistance, bond issues and other sources of financing, and development policy issues are found in the series. Memoranda to files, usually written by Wishart, make a record of Woods' meetings with high-level government and business executives, focusing on important remarks and outcomes. Occasional Bank-internal memoranda, usually addressed to Vice Presidents and other high-level managers, concern such issues as staffing of the Economic Development Institute (EDI), defining the competencies of the technical operations and regional departments of the Bank with regard to project preparation, and procedures for establishing consultative groups.

The social and public relations letters express appreciation for invitations, hospitality, and for letters, publications and gifts received; express regret regarding invitations; offer congratulations; discuss arrangements for meetings and itineraries for travel; and provide letters of introduction.

Briefing papers

The majority of this series consists President George D. Woods' briefing papers for the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Boards of Governors. The briefing papers for each annual meeting are organized by geographical region and thereunder by individual countries. The country sections contain background information on each country's economic and political situation (including occasional economic reports), the country's relations with the Bank, and lists of each member country's delegates at the annual meeting and the topics they are likely to raise. In the case of Africa and Latin America, there are also memoranda concerning the caucuses held by the countries in these regions and texts of remarks the President intended to deliver to them.

Also part of the series is a briefing file on the 57th session of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in July 1965. Two small files contain briefs for visits to Argentina and Brazil.

Travel files

The travel files are for foreign trips exclusively. They include both trips undertaken for specific operational purposes, such as raising funds for IDA and promoting bond issues in Part I countries and encouraging the establishment of development funds, banks and agencies, and trips undertaken for ceremonial activities, such as the groundbreaking ceremony of an Aluminum Smelter in Ghana. Individual trips files may include handwritten notes President Woods took during meetings with heads of state and other dignitaries, speeches, and frequently memoranda to files summarizing the purposes and highlights of important meetings, as well as invitations, acceptance and thank you letters, background or formal briefing papers on the politico-economic situation of the countries visited, itineraries, agendas, programs, flight schedules, information on lodgings and tourist attractions, maps, and newspaper clippings.

Chronological [outgoing] files

This series consists of copies of President Clausen's outgoing correspondence during his entire Presidency. Correspondents include government heads and officials, heads of the United Nations, international agencies, banks, development banks and other corporations, U.S. government officials, the Governors of the Bank, the Bank's Executive Directors, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Bank staff members.

The files document the views of the President on the economic situation, theproblems faced by the Bank and the IDA in securing resources, debt management, Bank-Fund collaboration, the Bank's poverty oriented lending programs, the energy program, and other specific Bank operations. A number of circular letters are included on topics such as subscriptions to the General Capital Increase of the Bank, requests for IDA contributions, the establishment of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ( MIGA ) and the establishment of a special facility for Sub-Saharan Africa. The correspondence also contains more routine letters, invitations, congratulations and condolences. The thank-you letters include correspondence following official trips and thanks for aid, particularly for contributions to IDA replenishment. Invitations include invitations to Annual Meetings, to special panels, to senior staff retreats and meetings, and to luncheons.

Letters to staff regarding personnel matters, including welcomes to new positions and farewells on retirement, and general administrative matters such as the implementation of the Performance Planning and Review (PPR) Program, are also in the file.

Senior Management Council official files

This series consists of the official files of the Senior Management Council maintained by its secretary. In 1982 the Senior Management Council replaced the President's Council, which had been created in 1965 by George Woods. Occasionally the Senior Management Council and the Managing Committee met jointly, and some records of the joint meetings are included.

The official records contain agendas, minutes, memoranda to the Senior Management Council, reports and studies for review, and some correspondence. Also included are materials concerning the annual dinner gatherings and retreats of the Executive Directors and members of the Senior Management Council, including drafts of the President's remarks at the dinners. A photograph of the Senior Management Council members in 1984 is included.

Correspondence

This series contains a fragment of President George D. Woods' correspondence, both private and official. Notable among the official correspondence is a letter to Hector Prud'homme, University of Hartford, Connecticut, on education projects; an exchange of letters with the President of Pakistan, Marshall Ayub Khan, on the political situation for Pakistan in July 1965; a letter to Antonio Montero, a banker from the Bahamas, on external financing of local currency components of public projects; and a report from World Bank Vice President J. Burke Knapp on his talks with the President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, on the situation in Rhodesia in December 1965.

President's Council files

This series consists of the records of meetings of the President's Council that were maintained by Anapum Khanna, Special Assistant to the President. The files contain agendas and minutes of the meetings, Khanna's handwritten notes taken during meetings, talking points for the President, and papers for discussion by the Council. The series is not a complete record of all President's Council meetings for the period covered, and not all records of meetings contain an agenda or minutes.

This series is a useful supplement to the official records of the Council in WB IBRD/IDA EXC-11-32S. Not all of the official records include minutes, and Khanna's handwritten notes may fill in gaps in the official files. Furthermore, this series includes talking points for the President, all of which may not be included in the official files.

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.

Working files - Conable/Camdessus lunches

This series contains records of President Conable's meetings with Michel Camdessus, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, between June 1989 and July 1991. The records consist of meeting agendas, briefing notes, talking points, and minutes of the meetings. The topics include Bank and Fund collaboration and operations involving debt reduction, country matters, environmental issues, and preparations for Annual Meetings issues, among others.

The file was maintained by Jennifer Volk, an Executive Assistant to the President. The official file on the lunches is missing from the Liaison files - Non-governmental and international agencies; consequently the working file provides the existing information on the meetings of these two executives.

President's Council files

Shortly after assuming the Presidency, Barber Conable discontinued the Managing Committee that, during the Clausen years, had provided overall administrative control of the Bank. In its place Conable created an advisory body made up of the Bank Vice Presidents who reported directly to the President (some vice presidents reported to other vice presidents; they were excluded). This body was originally known as the Policy Committee, then renamed the President's Council in May 1988. It advised on policy decisions for consideration by the Executive Directors, on strategic objectives, resource mobilization and allocation, manpower strategies, and other managerial issues. A staff member in the President's office served as the secretary for the Committee/Council.

This series contains the official records of the Council, from May 1987 to July 1991, grouped in two subseries. The files in the first subseries, amounting to 10 linear feet, are the records of the weekly meetings of the Council, including agendas, minutes, reports, and documents discussed. The second subseries, 2 linear feet, is the set of papers distributed to the Council members for background information; the first seven files (of a total of nine) include a list at the beginning of the file providing the title of each document in the file, the originator, and the date. The files include a few pieces of correspondence and a few annotations and comments from Council members.

These records are an essential source for a researcher who wishes to understand the internal discussions in the Bank during the Conable years.

Executive Committee minutes

This series contains the minutes of the informal Executive Committee that started meeting weekly with the President on February 9, 1981. It was composed of the Senior Vice-Presidents, the Secretary and the General Counsel. Mattersdiscussed by the short-lived committee include the 1982-1986 lending program, the IBRD general capital increase, the IDA Sixth replenishment, the energy program, the PLO observers issue and staff compensation.

Liaison files - U.S. Government

This series contains the records of President Preston's interaction with both Congressional and Executive branches of the U.S. Government. The files include information on legislation affecting the Bank or its staff, briefing notes and minutes of the meetings with the Members of Congress and senior officials in the Executive Branch, and correspondence with the White House. The file on the White House contains mostly records from the Conable Presidency.

Annual Meetings

This series consists of President Preston's files for the Annual Meetings and the records of the logistical arrangements made by his office staff. The general organization of the Annual Meeting is the responsibility of the Corporate Secretary, so the records in this series are those of the President himself and the arrangements made by and for his immediate office.

The records consist of agendas, background material, briefings, speeches, correspondence, and related records regarding the Annual Meetings. The 1993 and 1994 files include briefings on commercial banks and financial institutions and the 1993 files include a Reference book. Market that has briefings on the Bank's FY94 funding plan, official borrowings, and country briefs. The briefings provided to the President for these meetings give a useful snapshot of the state of the particular country or institution as of the date of the meeting.

Travel files

The files in this series contain Mr. Preston's travel itinerary; briefing books that include background on the country's economy, the Bank's lending program, projects under execution, country profile and map of the country; schedules; meetings with Heads of States and representatives of member countries; minutes of meetings; arrival and departure statements; press statements; and outgoing letters to the government subjects.

The series contains both the files that the President used on the trip and the administrative files created by the President's office, most often by Gisu Mohadjer, an Executive Assistant to Preston, during the preparation for the trips. In some cases, there are Gisu Mohadjer files for a trip as well as files that appear to be the President's copy for use during the trip. Often the Mohadjer file will contain some briefing materials as well as logistical information.

The records include photographs from Mr. Preston's trips to Tanzania, Venezuela, Morocco, and India.

Chronological files

This series contains President Preston's outgoing correspondence, principally letters, between December 1990 and May 1995, as well as some incoming correspondence addressed to Preston, and other correspondence originating in the Office of the President. The first file predates Preston's tenure at the Bank. As the series covers the entirety of Preston's term, records created during his leave of absence by acting President Stern and other Office staff are included.

Because the Preston records are scant, this series of formal outgoing letters provides an important overview of the external liaison activities in which the President engaged.

Records of the Portfolio Management Task Force (Wapenhans Report) and follow-up

In February 1992, Lewis Preston ordered a study of the Bank's basic portfolio management and evaluation process for loans and credits. Headed by Willi Wapenhans, who was assigned to the President's office for the study, the Portfolio Management Task Force produced a report in September 1992 that is one of the most famous in the Bank's history. It argued that the Bank did not pay enough attention to the implementation and supervision of loans and that sustainable development impact is the true measure of success. The Wapenhans Report, as it came to be known, was presented to the Board of Executive Directors in November 1992. In January 1993 Preston assigned Visvanathan Rajagopalan, who as a vice president who had been a member of the advisory council to the Task Force, to coordinate discussions regarding the implementation of the recommendations in the Task Force report.

The files are in 2 parts. The first part is the files of Wapenhans as the chair of the Task Force. These files were inherited by Rajagopalan as he worked on the implementation of the report during 1993. The second are the files of Rajagopalan, both a file regarding the work of the Task Force that he had maintained while he was the Vice President, Sector and Operations Policy, and files that he created during the follow-up period.

This series is the central source for information on the work of the Task Force. It includes the record of the discussion of the Executive Directors at the time the Task Force was formed and the background documents for the meeting of the Executive Directors after the report was issued, the minutes of the meetings of the Task Force from March through June and the audio tapes and the transcripts of a 2 day meeting with partner organizations (cofinancers), and feeder studies on topics ranging from the Bank's internal culture to the use of information technology.

Records regarding the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

This series contains records compiled by Visvanathan Rajagopalan in his capacity as Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The records include his correspondence, agendas and travel plans for meetings, copies of papers presented at meetings or circulated prior to meetings, copies of his introductory remarks delivered at meetings, his briefing books for International Centers Week (the annual meeting of the international agricultural research centers that form the CGIAR network), and scattered reports of the CGIAR Oversight Committee and its Technical Advisory Committee. Correspondence covers meeting arrangements; appointments, salaries, and other personnel matters affecting staff; and resource allocations. The series includes a small amount of the correspondence of Wilfried Thalwitz, Rajagopalan's predecessor as chair of CGIAR.

Speeches

This series contains transcripts of speeches and remarks Visvanathan Rajagopalan delivered as Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and as Vice President and Special Adviser to PresidentPreston. Most of the speeches concern CGIAR, but other topics range from the engineer's role in sustainable development to safe motherhood; food security; the Bank's activities in environment and infrastructure; integrating women's issues in project, sector, and economic work; the World Conference on Education for All; and malaria control. The series includes Rajagopalan's remarks at his retirement party.

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.

Budget files

The series consists of FY88 budget appeals and the effect of reorganization on the budget, budget policy and discussions, planning and budget guidelines; a budget framework paper; records of midyear budget reviews, the FY89 work program, and budgets for regional offices. The records also include the initial budget guidelines provided to the senior management group by President Conable.

Chronological file

This chronological file consists of copies of the outgoing letters and memoranda, both those handled for President Conable by Marianne Haug and Haug's own correspondence. The records begin in July 1985 when Haug was the Assistant Director of the Industry Department, continue through her service as Assistant Director, West Africa Projects, and conclude in May 1990 at the end of her stay in the President's office. A few incoming letters are included. The files for the periods mid-October 1985 through March 1986, October through December 1986, and mid-March through June 1989 are missing.

The files are useful both for their window onto the issues handled in the president's office and also for the glimpse they give of Haug's work as the first woman to serve as an Executive Assistant to the President of the Bank.

Reorganization files

This series consists of the records maintained by J. William Stanton concerning Bank's 1987 reorganization. They include internal Bank correspondence, presentations, and follow-up reports describing the successes and weaknesses of the 1987 reorganization efforts. The files also include correspondence and reports from management consultants in connection with the 1987 reorganization, memos of Stanton's discussions with President Conable, and reorganization reports of the Steering Committee and the Support Units Task Force.

Space Files

The series concerns the expansion, retrofit and reconstruction options for buildings occupied by the Bank in Washington, DC (known as Buildings A, B, C, D, E, F and I). It is the most complete set of records in the President's office on space issues facing the Bank.

More than half of the files are reports submitted to the Bank by architects, real estate appraisers, and real estate developers. The internal memoranda and external correspondence cover such topics as the space needs of the Bank, real estate values, and the acquisition and sale of properties, in particular the agreement between the Bank and the IFC regarding the transfer of the responsibility for the IFC building. The International Monetary Fund's expansion is the subject of one file.

Memoranda for the record

The Memoranda for the record series contains a set of minutes of McNamara's meetings with Bank staff, US representatives, and other visitors from outside the Bank. The memoranda generally were prepared by the Personal Assistant to McNamara, but there are also some memoranda of conversations drafted by McNamara and reports prepared by members of other departments in the Bank; some of the minutes are copies of minutes of the President's Council or the Policy Review Committee meetings. Background material, including notes and figures in McNamara's handwriting, sometimes accompanies the memoranda.

Meetings with Bank staff involve Vice-Presidents and Senior Vice-Presidents, the General Counsel and his Associate, the Secretary, Advisors and Special Assistants, Department Directors and the Executive Secretary of the Development Committee. Memoranda of meetings with the Staff Association are also included. Topics discussed with staff include the Bank's lending programs and budget, financial operations, organization and procedures, work programs and special studies. Among the latter are papers on capital markets; lending rate; financial policy; preference in procurement; agricultural research; commodities; the mining, urbanization and health sectors; agricultural credit; urban, nuclear power and aviation policies; river blindness; nutrition; population; employment; land reform; IDA policies and world development issues. The meetings also included discussions of McNamara's annual speech to the Governors and other speeches and statements, the preparation of Board meetings and other meetings, questions submitted by journalists, McNamara's trips to East and West Africa, and particular issues such as the increase of IBRD capital, the Development Committee, and the establishment of the Third Window.

Personalities meeting with McNamara from outside the Bank are U.S. Treasury Secretaries and other government officials, U.S. Congressmen, heads of international organizations, bankers, businessmen, economists, health specialists and journalists. These conversations concern the IDA and bond issues, marketing legislation, specific lending issues, and development cooperation.

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.

Correspondence

This series contains fragments of John J. McCloy's correspondence with political leaders and prominent businessmen during his time as President of the World Bank from March 1947 to May 1949. The most substantial bodies of correspondence are with Emilio G. Collado, U.S. Executive Director of the World Bank, 1946-1947; Russell C. Leffingwell, Chairman of the Executive Committee of J.P. Morgan and Co. Inc.; and Bernard H. Baruch, American financier and stock investor.

The correspondence with Emilio Collado consists of letters and memoranda to McCloy regarding World Bank activities, including excerpts from memoranda Collado prepared for U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson and a document entitled "Note Relating to a Debt Limit" dated May 1947. McCloy's correspondence with Russell C. Leffingwell includes substantive comments on topics related to the Bank and its operations, such as money stabilization, sterling devaluation, the Bank's lending philosophy, and the prospects for European recovery under the MarshallPlan. Letters to and from Bernard H. Baruch include: a letter related to an Export Import Bank loan to England; a letter sent by Baruch to John Snyder, U.S. Treasury Secretary, on how to stimulate production in the world; and a copy of McCloy's memoranda to Snyder on lending.

Also included are McCloy's answers to questions from U.S. House of Representatives member Howard Buffet and U.S. Senator Leverett Saltonstall. Finally, a letter from Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder forwarding an August 1947 memoranda by U.S. President Harry Truman is also included. It concerns U.S. Ambassador to Chile Claude Bowers' complaint about Wall Street control over the operations of the Bank.

Congratulations file

This series contains congratulatory letters from heads of state, government officials, and international and domestic private entities to A.W. Clausen on the occasion of his appointment as the President of the World Bank and the outgoing responses from President Clausen. A list of the contact addresses filed at the beginning of the series.

Alphabetical [subject] files

This series contains President A. W. Clausen's subject files. The records consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports and background materials relating to a broad spectrum of organizations, interests and concerns. They contain general correspondence, internal Bank communications, and external correspondence with the European Economic Community; the U.S. Congress and the Departments of Treasury and State, among others; the United Nations and its many specialized agencies; and various international banksand organizations. The UNICEF file includes photographs of Mr. Clausen with the Bay Area Corporate Committee for UNICEF in 1985.

Records of Economic Advisor Irving Friedman

Irving Friedman maintained these files on the Bank's cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in developing a supplementary financing scheme. The scheme was conceived as a response to the instability of commodity prices that frequently led to unexpected shortfalls of export earnings in developing countries. The aim was to have supplementary financing cover these shortfalls through soft loans to shield the development programs of the developing countries. IBRD/IIDA supplementary financing would offer longer-term assistance, as opposed to the International Monetary Fund's short-term compensatory financing facility.

The records include correspondence with UNCTAD, memoranda, drafts, handwritten notes by Friedman and others, meeting briefs, agendas, speeches, and official documents from UNCTAD, IMF, and IBRD on supplementary financing. The general correspondence is principally between Friedman, other Bank managers, and UNCTAD officials, especially Raul Prebish and Manuel Perez-Guerrero, Secretary Generals of UNCTAD, and Sidney Dell, Director of UNCTAD. The meetings files relate to meetings of UNCTAD, the UNCTAD Committee on Invisibles and Financing related to Trade, the Intergovernmental Group on Supplementary Finance, the Development Advisory Committee, and meetings within the World Bank. Friedman filed into the file on a meeting both documents that pre-dated the meeting and documents from activities subsequent to the meeting, so researchers will need to read through the sub-series on meetings in order to find all the items about one meeting.

In addition, three files on stabilization of prices for primary commodity products, transferred to the World Bank Group Archives separately from those on supplementary financing, are found at the end of the series.

Correspondence of Economic Advisor Hollis Chenery

Hollis Chenery served as the Economic Adviser to the President from 1970 until 1972. Reporting directly to the President, he commented on virtually all the significant economic issues that confronted the Bank. The series consists of one file of Chenery's memoranda and correspondence and two files on the Development Research Center of the World Bank.

The correspondence file includes a memorandum by Chenery on research prospects in Latin America in April 1972; a proposal to the Bank on generation of employment in Mexico and a draft study with comments on planning in Mexico; and a draft study on Ethiopia. The correspondence ends in May 1972; an invitation dating from 1973 is also included.

The two files on the Development Research Center primarily drafts of economic studies. The study topics include evaluations of various economic models, Mexican agriculture, and substitution of labor for equipment in road construction.

Conferences, lectures and addresses

This series contains correspondence and notes regarding guest lectures and remarks by President McNamara and conferences he attended, both in the U.S. and in Europe. It is clearly fragmentary and does not cover many of the events in which McNamara participated. The series includes speeches he gave on topics such as population (University of Notre Dame in May 1969), poverty and population (American Urological Association in October 1977), and international development (Frederick Ebert Foundation in Bonn in 1979). Several files relate to awards given to McNamara, including on from the Tun Abdul Razak foundation in Malaysia; some awards files include speeches and remarks he made at the presentation of the award.

A few conference files include McNamara's handwritten notes of points made by other speakers; sometimes a typescript copy of his notes on the proceedings is filed. Because the speakers were often important figures in public affairs, these notes are useful for researching both the positions taken bythe participants and McNamara's understanding of the points they made.

Travel briefings

This series contains the briefings prepared for President McNamara's official trips. It includes notes by McNamara, some handwritten; correspondence with senior staff and government officials; and staff reports on visits.

The briefings consist of schedules, airport statements, government lists and biographies, lists of topics for discussion, basic data and maps, background information on the political and economic situation and the Bank's operations in the country visited and, for Part II countries, aid programs and IDA contributions. Schedules, statements, biographies, and topics for discussion are often annotated by McNamara, some heavily. If the trip included more than one country, the first file may include general information on the region. While most files contain a full briefing, a few files include only the list of persons visited or a schedule.

The 1980 files on an African trip include a file of Mrs. McNamara's activities. The series includes one photo from McNamara's trip to Peru in 1976.

These files are valuable for any researcher looking at the Bank's relationship with a country. The rich analytical material in the briefing file pulls together the Bank's information on a country at a particular date which, when supplemented with McNamara's notes, give a snapshot of the country's stage of development and its political climate.

Travel briefings of staff assistants to the President

The series consists of the travel briefing files of three staff assistants for three trips during the McNamara Presidency. The first are the files of Sven Burmester, Special Assistant to the President, for the Middle East trip (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) of March 5-16, 1975. The second are the files of Caio Koch-Weser, Personal Assistant to the President, for the West Africa trip (Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea, The Gambia, and Senegal) of November 1-15, 1977. The last are the files of Oliver Lafourcade, Personal Assistant to the President, for the trip to India and Pakistan, March 28-April 1, 1981. All of these trips also have briefing files in the President's travel briefs series.

Board [of Executive Directors] Actions files

President McNamara's memoranda to the Board of Executive Directors constitute this series. They are divided into the following subjects:

  • I. Lending rate

  • II. Profit transfer

  • III. Budget proposals

  • IV. Compensation

  • V. Structural adjustment lending

  • VI. Miscellaneous

  • VII. International Development Association

  • VIII. International Finance Corporation

  • IX. Financial policy

  • BC. Brandt Commission Pearson Commission Role of the Bank.

The first file of the series consists of 2 finding aids prepared in the President's office. The first finding aid is an annotated list of the President's memoranda to the Executive Directors from 1 April 1968 - July 10, 1980, listing the subjects discussed, the background papers distributed on the subject, the date of the discussion, and remarks. The annotations indicate the file (I through X and BC) containing the documents on the subject. The second finding aid is titled Board Actions Books I-X. It lists all documents filed within the ten numbered subject files plus the Brandt Commission file. Copies of these lists are filed in the subject files, and the lists in the subject files are annotated to show which documents have been removed from that file or have been filed in other files.

The memoranda dealing with lending rate contain the President's recommendations to the Board with regard to the Bank's interest rate policy and its annual and quarterly review. They include background material dating from 1947 and some handwritten notes by McNamara of the Executive Directors' discussions on lending rate policy (1968, 1969 and 1979).

The memoranda on profit transfer deal with the Bank's annual transfer to IDA of part of the year's income. They include some handwritten notes by McNamara of the Executive Directors' discussion on the allocation of net income for FY69. The budget proposals and related memoranda presented to the Executive Directors for review and approval are occasionally annotated by McNamara. The 1973 Review of IBRD/IDA program, FY74-78, is accompanied by the President's handwritten notes of his meetings with H. Kaufman, E. Patberg and L. Parker of Salomon Brothers, the First Boston Corporation and Morgan Stanley respectively.

The memoranda on compensation are concerned with salary policies and procedures, salary reviews, staff retirement and tax liabilities. They include McNamara's proposals of a general salary increase with his notes of the discussions of the Board, drafts and comparative figures (1968-1970), and recommendations with regard to the conclusions of the McKinsey study on staff compensation (1972) and the Report of the Joint Bank-Fund Committee on Staff Compensation Issues (Kafka Committee 1979). There are also notes taken by the President of discussions on tax liabilities (1979).

The miscellaneous memoranda deal with Board procedures, IBRD borrowing, lending policies, procurement practices, operations evaluation, work arrangements with other agencies, the Bank research program, international agricultural research, and office space. They contain McNamara's handwritten notes on the Executive Directors' discussions of his recommendations regarding subscriptions to the capital stock of the Bank (1969, 1970), Board procedures (1971), and the financing of tea (1973). The memoranda relating to IBRD borrowing and bonds issues are heavily annotated by the President (1978-1980), as is a memorandum on development policy for countries dependent on exports of primary products (1973).

The memoranda regarding IDA concern IDA policies, financing and international agricultural research. They bear no annotations by the President.

The memoranda regarding IFC contain some notes by McNamara of the discussion by the Executive Directors of papers on operating policies (1973), as well as personal comments by R. L. Knight regarding IFC policies (1973).

The memoranda on financial policy contain McNamara's papers to the Board on the Bank's borrowing program, financial policies and capital increase, and the establishment of the Third Window. They include the President's drafts of statements and closing remarks for the Executive Directors' discussions of memoranda on the scale of financial operations FY74-78 (1972) and IBRD financial policies (1973) and notes accompanying his 1976 memorandum on IBRD capital increase.

The memoranda on the recommendations of the Pearson and Brandt Commissions relating to the Bank bear some annotations by McNamara.

A set of documents concerning the discussions of memoranda to the Board on the future role of the Bank and its associated capital requirements was put together by President McNamara. It contains summaries of informal meetings with the Directors, technical notes, memoranda and handwritten notes of the discussions, and correspondence. An index to the documents in the file Role of the Bank, both in McNamara's handwriting and in typescript, is included in the file.

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