Showing 1-50 of 82 results

Records of the Office of the President Series

Administrative files

This series contains subject files on administrative and budgetary issues involving the Bank and, occasionally, the International Monetary Fund. The records include management discussion briefs, correspondence, and reports. The files cover important topics such as Paul Volcker's meetings with Conable, the purchase of theI building, press relations, staff issues such as pension and compensation, and fine tuning the 1987 Bank reorganization. The files also include a copy of a lecture delivered by Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, Vice President and General Counsel, in reference to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the legal treatment of foreign investment. Some files contain material dating from the Clausen presidency.

This is one of the few series of records from the Conable Presidency whose content is principally the internal administration of the World Bank. As such, it provides insight into Conable's administrative style and the set of issues in which he was interested. This series does not contain files on the major reorganization that he undertook in 1987; it does, however, have substantive files on the subsequent fine tuning of the reorganization in late 1989.

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.

Annual Meeting files

This series contains President Clausen's records related to the Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors. The records are a mix of substantive and administrative materials, from lists of delegations and special guests to briefing materials on countries and issues. The files contain the President's opening and closing remarks, speeches and addresses; records relating to the annual Ministers' luncheon, Co-Financing breakfast, and the Latin-American Governors' luncheon; records of press conferences; correspondence and memoranda regarding appointments with country delegations; schedules, letters of invitation and thank you notes.

Annual Meetings

This series contains records relating to President Conable's meetings during Annual Meetings of the Bank's board of Governors. The organization of the Annual Meeting is the responsibility of the Corporate Secretary, so these records are those of the President himself and the arrangements made by and for his immediate office. The records are arranged in 2 subseries. The first subseries contains the President's records for the Annual Meetings, including background materials and briefings prepared by the staff in preparation for general meetings and meetings with country delegates. The records cover only the first three years of Conable's term (1986-1988).

The second subseries contains the administrative files the President's office created while preparing for the annual meetings. The files include schedules for the President and senior Bank officials, files for Mrs. Conable's activities, special guest lists, letters of invitation, travel and financial arrangements for staff, hotel accommodations and related items. Briefings are included in the files for some meetings. The administrative file on the 1987 annual meeting, for example, includes sub-files titled: Part I [country Governors], Part II [country Governors], Africa, Asia, EMENA [Europe, Middle East, North Africa], LAC [Latin America and Caribbean], IMF, Social, VIPs, JS [Joint Secretariat] documents, Speeches, Development/Interim Committee, Briefs, Administration. The series includes a photo of three Bank Presidents - McNamara, Clausen, and Conable - taken at the 1986 Annual Meeting.

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.

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.

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.

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, memoranda and correspondence handled for President Conable by J. William Stanton as well as Stanton's correspondence. The records include social and public relations messages; letters of appreciation for invitations, acceptances and regrets; congratulations; arrangements for meetings; and letters of introduction and recommendation. A few incoming letters are included. Public figures, such as U.S. Senators and officials of the Executive Branch, are among the correspondents.

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.

Chronological file (outgoing)

This series consists of copies of letters and memoranda drafted by McNamara or drafted for him, in his Office or another department of the Bank, except those drafted by the Bank's Department of Information and Public Affairs (IPA). Originally this series contained the Personal Assistant to the President's copies of McNamara's outgoing correspondence, with the President's office maintaining a separate series of McNamara's personal outgoing letters. Beginning in 1973 these two were merged in this series.

The addressees are heads of States, international organizations and regional banks, government officials, Bank Governors and Executive Directors, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, bankers, lawyers, journalists, publishers, and scholars. Subjects range from congratulations, invitations to the annual meeting of the Bank and thank-you notes following official trips, to World Bank bond issues, the replenishments of IDA, the approval, status or questioning of a loan, development activities of other agencies, and development policy. The series also includes short memoranda addressed by McNamara to his senior staff that reflect the President's close monitoring of the operations of the Bank and his particular concern for the areas of agriculture, education, nutrition and population.

Chronological file (personal)

The personal chronological file contains material drafted by McNamara or his secretaries between 1968 and 1972. It includes outgoing correspondence, short memoranda to the senior staff and memoranda recording conversations, notes on special issues and notes to himself.

The correspondence consists of acceptances or declinations to speak, comment, serve on committees, join boards, lunch and dine; thank-you notes; congratulations and condolences; recommendations; the President's requests for meetings or support; letters on Bank activities and letters on private matters. Addressees include heads of States and government officials, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, bankers, scholars, publishers, journalists, art dealers and old friends. There are letters and cables to Hubert Humphrey, Edward Kennedy, David Rockefeller, John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger, Pierre Salinger, Henry Kissinger, Walt W. Rostow, Edward Heath, Lord Mountbatten, and Harlan Cleveland.

The memoranda to the staff are short notes to the Vice-Presidents, the Economic Advisor, the General Counsel, and the Directors of the Development Services, External Affairs and Administration offices on particular issues of concern to their sector or department. Memoranda of conversations record discussions with members of the Board, Bank staff and government officials, including Henry Fowler, John Connally, Dean Rusk, Walt W. Rostow, Daniel Ellsberg and Maurice Strong.

Interfiled with outgoing letters and memoranda are lists of projects President McNamara drafted for himself in May 1968, April and August 1969, January 1971 and December 1972. There also are points for meetings and for the press, outlines of the Bank President's annual speech and notes and figures on the Bank's capital increase, the IDA policies and third replenishment, the budget, the Bank's organization, staff compensation, population growth, the gap between poor and rich nations and nuclear force issues.

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.

Chronological files (outgoing)

This series contains letters and memoranda signed and sent by the President. Topics range from substantive issues of development assistance to social and public relations messages. Letters are addressed to foreign heads of state, government officials, banks, private citizens, US Senators and Congressmen, scholars, development institutions and academics, heads of organizations, diplomats, and journalists. Some internal messages and memorandam, including memoranda to the files, are included.

This is a verycomplete record of Conable's views on all matters that came before him and of the people with whom he corresponded. Although these are duplicate copies of records that should appear elsewhere in the files of the President's office or the Bank, this is a particularly useful series when other files have gaps.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Contacts - Member Countries files

The Contacts - Member Countries files are the record of President McNamara's meetings with famous individuals, representatives of member countries other than the United States, and representatives of organizations (e.g., Executive Directors, Annual Meeting delegates, heads of States and organizations, government officials, parliamentarians, bankers, businessmen, industrialists, economists, journalists). The files contain minutes of meetings, briefings, questions and answers for press interviews, background material and some correspondence.

Although the minutes were generally prepared by staff from the concerned region or the Personal Assistant to the President, the files contain many memoranda of conversations and notes on meetings and visits drafted by McNamara, some handwritten. Also in McNamara's hand are a number of points to discuss for meetings and annotations on the briefs prepared by staff. Among the items personally drafted by McNamara are notes of, or for, meetings with King Baudouin (1969), Pierre Trudeau (1976), Anwar Sadat (1975), Georges Pompidou (1969), Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1972, 1975, 1979), Karl Otto Poehl, Hans Dietrich Genscher, Helmut Schmidt (1975), Indira Gandhi (1973), the Shah of Iran (1973), Felix Houphouet-Boigny (1969), Takeo Fukuda (1978), William Tolbert (1973), Nicolae Ceausescu (1968), Leopold Senghor (1969), Alec Douglas-Home (1972), Edward Heath (1973), U Thant (1969), Joseph Mobutu (1972).

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.

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.

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.

Country correspondence

The country correspondence files contain miscellaneous correspondence with persons and businesses from particular countries, mostly for the period after Woods' tenure as Bank President. They include invitations, thank you letters,travel arrangements and some printed brochures. In the Pakistan file is a set of material relating to the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tarbela Dam in November 1968.

Country files

The series contains records of President Preston's briefings and talking points for meetings with Government leaders and representatives of member countries, background information on the country, country strategy papers, and internal memoranda. A few files contain items from the Conable Presidency. Many of the records in the files are memoranda and correspondence of the Managing Directors; however, the records were maintained as the record set of country files for the Office of the President.

The files cover only the first three years of the Preston term. Files on countries during the last part of the Preston years are found in the records of Matthew F. McHugh, who was appointed Counselor to the President in 1993. McHugh remained in the President's office for the first term of the Wolfensohn Presidency and he continued to use and file into the country files he maintained; these records are part of the Wolfensohn Presidential records.

Country files

This series contains records of President Conable's meetings with representatives, delegates, and heads of the member countries; briefing notes for meetings with country leaders; general background information on countries and governments; press releases; correspondence with government leaders; memoranda of advice from staff members; and congratulatory and thank you letters. Topics covered in the records include external debt; Bank lending operations and criteria, and environmental concerns. Three files cover regions in Africa - Eastern, Southern, and Sub-Saharan - rather than an individual country, in addition to individual files on most countries in those regions. No files on the United States are included.

The files on the USSR are significant, as the period of the Conable presidency covers the late twentieth century political changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Of particular interest are the files on a joint study that the 1990 economic summit in Houston, Texas, asked the Bank and the IMF toundertake. The study, completed between July 1990 and May 1991, surveyed the Soviet economy, made recommendations for its reform, and established criteria for Western economic assistance to support reform.

Many of the files contain records dating from the Clausen presidency, some as early as 1984; apparently Conable used the Clausen country records as building blocks for his information on the countries. Similarly, the files on the USSR contain some records that post-date the Conable administration by several months (until December 1991), as the incoming Preston administration continued to use them.

Country files

The Country files series contains the records of President Clausen's meetings with heads of states and organizations, representatives of member countries, government officials, Executive Directors, and Annual Meeting delegates. No files on the United States are included; these records are found primarily in the alphabetical files.

The files contain correspondence, memos, briefings, reports, opening remarks for the meetings, Country Program Papers, Annual Meeting country briefs, memoranda of the meetingswith the country delegates, press interviews, and background material. The records reflect the World Bank's issues with, concerns for, and activities in the country, region, or organization. The files on Algeria and Panama include photographs.

Development Committee files

This series contains President Clausen's records related to the Development Committee meetings from 1983 through 1986. Formally the Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, the Development Committee was established in 1974 with its own secretariat that maintained the official records of the Committee.

The records in this series, therefore, are Clausen's office files on the Development Committee meetings during his tenure (meetings 21-28). The records, organized by meeting, include correspondence, memoranda regarding the meetings, drafts of the President's opening remarks and the President's Report to the Development Committee, summaries of Committee discussions, and statements to the press. The files also contain papers and reports prepared for the Development Committee, including the Development Committee Annual Report, task force and working group reports, and papers on topics such as development in Sub-Saharan Africa, the world economic outlook, and external debt problems of developing countries.

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.

External Affairs

This series is a rich source of information on the liaison and public relations activities of the Preston Presidency. The records are particularly strong on the Bank's efforts to improve relationships with the Government of the United States and the U.S. public. Other files cover efforts to improve internal communications in the Bank and to coordinate with Bank field offices. In addition, McHugh's files on Presidential trips cover travel that is not included in the Travel files of the President.

Finance Committee file

The President's Finance Committee was established by President McNamara on 9 August 1979 together with the Personnel Management Committee. Both committees operated as sub-committees of the President's Council. The purpose of the Finance Committee was to deal with such matters as liquidity objectives, profit objectives, the lending rate, financial structure, and IDA transfers. The membership consisted of the President as chair, the Senior Vice President, the Vice President for Finance who served as vice chair, the Vice President for Operations, the Vice President and General Counsel, the Vice President and Secretary, the Vice President and Treasurer, and the Director, Programming and Budgeting.

The series contains the agenda and minutes of the Committee meetings between August 1979 and June 1981. It includes papers regarding the currency pooling system, debt problems of developing countries, co-financing, the cost of IBRD borrowings, criteria for selective capital increase and other papers distributed to the members of the Committee for discussion.

Financial files

This series provides information on financial issues, both internal and external, that affect the Bank. The files include briefings, talking points, agendas, drafts of Mr. Conable's opening remarks for meetings, and correspondence. The file on the debt initiative includes records dating from the Clausen presidency.

General correspondence

This series contains letters and copies of letters addressed to President McNamara by heads of States, international organizations and regional development banks, government officials, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, economists and lawyers. It also contains internal memoranda addressed to the President by the Executive Directors or the staff. Incoming letters and memoranda are often annotated or accompanied by notes by McNamara or minutes of his responses. Although generally incoming items, the series also contains a small quantity of outgoing letters and memoranda. Correspondents include heads of State Indira Gandhi, Yahya Khan, and Gamel Abdel Nasser; U.S. Treasury Secretaries Henry Fowler, John Connally, William Simon, W. Michael Blumenthal and G. William Miller; UN Secretary Generals U Thant and Kurt Waldheim; various directors of WHO, FAO, the UN Environment Programme and World Food Council; and public figures such as Barbara Ward. The correspondence deals with the general issue of development, development programs of other agencies, relations with the U.S. government and Congress, and governments of other member countries, in particular India and Pakistan. The internal memoranda addressed to the President mostly concern the IDA replenishments and the situation in India and Pakistan, but there are also some exchanges on joint financing, World Bank borrowing, relations with OPEC countries, energy, the World Development Report of 1978, and a number of memoranda regarding the U.S. Congress' committee investigation on the Bank's effectiveness in reaching the poor (1977). McNamara's minutes and notes include his letter to Lester B. Pearson asking him to organize a committee to study development in the next decade (1968); letters to various U.S. Treasury Secretaries and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the IDA replenishments and the Foreign Assistance Appropriation Bill, the Bank and the OPEC countries; memoranda of conversations with Executive Directors and notes on the IDA, the India-Pakistan war, and Bangladesh; and an annotated draft of the World Development Program proposal (1977). The series also includes two photographs of Robert McNamara with U.S. President Richard Nixon in the White House at the signing ceremony on 10 March 1972 of the bill authorizing the United States' contribution to International Development Association (IDA).

IPA chronological file (outgoing)

This series is composed of letters and memoranda drafted for McNamara by the Department of Information and Public Affairs (IPA) between January 1969 and July 1981. Letters consist of thank-you notes, mostly regrets, for invitations to participate or speak at meetings or luncheons, deliver interviews and appear on television, thanks for gifts, books, articles, comments, views, support, staff work, and responses to requests for material, statements and articles.

The addressees are private citizens, scholars, journalists, heads of organizations and congregations, diplomats, and government officials. Thank-you letters range from a note to President Leopold Sedar Senghor thanking him for a volume of poetry, to letters to the U.S. President, senators and congressmen thanking them for assuring the passage of foreign assistance legislation. Responses to inquiries include a letter informing President Sekou Toure of the progress of the Konkoure project, a letter attempting to answer William Safire's etymological inquiry about the phrase bargaining chip, and notes declining requests for comments on defense policy and the Vietnam War.

Itinerary files

This series contains records of President Clausen's visits abroad and his appearances and presentations in the United States. The files contain travel itineraries, briefing materials, arrival and departure statements, press conference briefings, remarks, schedules of meetings and appointments, correspondence (letters, memoranda, telexes and facsimiles written to and from government leaders, thank you notes), lists of government officials and biographical data about them, general background information on countries and governments, status reports on projects in execution, maps and newspaper clippings. The file on Niger contains photographs of the ministers. Some files listed under a country are primarily files on a meeting held there, not on the country per se; see, for example, the GATT meeting file under Switzerland. Itineraries and briefings for Mrs. Clausen when she accompanied the President on foreign visits are found in some files. The general files at the beginning of the series contain travel orders and itineraries but no background information.

The series is rich in annotations and comments by Clausen and his advisors. It provides snapshot views of the countries at the time of the visits and also provides particularly useful information on the World Bank's relationship with each country.

Liaison files - Non-governmental and international agencies

This series documents the communications between the Bank, particularly the President's office, and various national and international organizations, governmental and nongovernmental, non-profit and commercial. A wide range of liaison activities are reflected; the records include invitations to meetings and conferences, points of discussions for meetings, meeting briefs and minutes of meetings, news releases and communiques, and correspondence. An equally broad range of topics is included, from agricultureand the environment to trade and financial affairs. A few files include records from the period of the Clausen presidency.

One subject file on the Gulf crisis of 1990-1991 is included. It relates primarily to funding issues, both for countries in the region of the crisis and for the return of refugees in the post-crisis period. The UNICEF file contains black and white photographs of President Conable at a meeting on February 6, 1989.

Liaison files - U.S. Government

This series contains the records of President Conable'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. A few documents are included from the end of the Clausen Presidency.

A general file covers Congressional matters, in addition to files on the House of Representatives and the Senate. One subject file is included, on an initiative by the U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker III and Senator Bill Bradley to develop a new strategy to manage international debt. In addition, one file is included on the Bank's relationship with the government of the District of Columbia.

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.

Managing Committee official files

This series consists of the official files of the Managing Committee. The records include agendas, schedules of meetings, minutes of the meetings, and memoranda and reports on a range of topics reflecting senior management concerns and overall World Bank administration. The records include correspondence with most of the Senior Vice Presidents on issues for committee consideration.

The minutes of the weekly Committee meetings were prepared from manuscript notes, then a draft was circulated (called pre-record minutes), and finally a record copy was issued. The series includes a file of manuscript notes by the Committee's secretary, covering both Managing Committee and Senior Management Council meetings, from February 22 to August 30, 1982. Draft minutes, with comments from the members, exist for the meetings from October 1981 through April 1983.

The Managing Committee had three subcommittees: Finance, Operations Policy, and Personnel and Administration. Issues coming to the Managing Committee were proposed by one of the subcommittees, by the President's office, or by one of the other primary offices in the Bank. Each issue had an accompanying paper, identified by the submitting office, year, and number; for example, an issues paper for the Managing Committee submitted by the Operations Policy Subcommittee in 1983 titled Power Sector Support Strategy was numbered OPS/MC83-06. This series has a full set of issues papers, arranged alphabetically by three-letter symbol for the submitting unit. The committee secretary prepared detailed indexes to the topics discussed in the Managing Committee, and the indexes provide easy access to these submissions.

Fragmentary records of the meetings of two of the three subcommittees make up the final section of this series. All these records are from 1982 and consist of one file of the working papers of the Personnel and Administration Subcommittee and six files from the Operations Policy Subcommittee. Additional information on the work of the subcommittees can be found in the set of submitted documents, because some of the subcommittee minutes were circulated to the entire Managing Committee for information.

These records are an essential source for a researcher who wishes to understand the internal decision-making in the Bank during the Clausen years.

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.

Personnel Management Committee files

The President's Personnel Committee was established by President McNamara on 9 August 1979 together with the Finance Committee. Both Committees operated as sub-committees of the President's Council. The purpose of the Personnel Committee was to deal with such issues as staff compensation and benefits, staff development, recruitment, management and manpower planning, Staff Association relationships and senior level appointments and transfers. The membership consisted of the President as chair, the SeniorVice President, the Vice President for Administration who served as vice chair, the Vice President for Operations, the Vice President for Finance, and one rotating member.

The series contains the minutes of the Committee as well as discussion papers distributed to the members of the Committee.

Photographs

This series contains primarily photographic prints and negatives documenting some of President Conable's trips abroad, taken by governments or businesses where he visited. The photographs, all in albums, are in predominantly in color, with a few in black and white. The photographs have no identification other than country and date. One album contains photographs taken by the World Bank of the 1990 annual meeting in Washington and includes photographs of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Photographs

This series contains photographic prints and negatives documenting some of President Clausen's trips abroad, taken by governments or businesses where he visited. Most photographs are of the activities of President and Mrs. Clausen, but a few are photographs of World Bank projects. Some photographs are labeled, but the majority have no identification other than country and date. One album contains only photographic postcards. The photographs, mostly in presentation albums, are in color and black and white. Included are photos from the trips to Kenya, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Senegal, Ghana, China, Sudan, Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Malawi, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, and Mali. The series also includes photos of Clausen with the World Bank Executive Directors and a copy of United States Banker Magazine, December 1980 issue, with Clausen on the cover.

Presidential chronological files of Economic Advisor Irving Friedman

Irving Friedman served as the Economic Adviser to the President from 1964 until he left the Bank in 1970. Reporting directly to the President, he commented on virtually all the significant economic issues that confronted the Bank. The series, which Friedman called his Presidential chron files consists principally of Friedman's correspondence with Bank President Robert McNamara, but it also includes some correspondence with other Bank managers and one file on a memorandum from Friedman to President George Woods.

Friedman's 1964 memorandum to Woods is a commentary on an analysis by John C. Bullitt, U.S. Executive Director, of the impact on other funders of an accelerated development assistance effort by the United States Government. The files from 1968-1970 cover topics including the Grand Assize and the Pearson Commission, which were convened to help formulate a new development strategy; population planning; the second IDA replenishment negotiations; supplementary finance and debt rescheduling, among others. Also included are analyses of economic news; some reports of the Economic Committee, which Friedman chaired; reports from program studies units in the Bank; and status reports and briefs on Bank economic activities. The file on McNamara's interview consists of background information assembled for him and suggested answer to questions, particularly on financing for the Bank, borrower indebtedness and the Bank as a development institution. In addition there is one file on a commodity study and one file of minutes and matters outstanding from meetings of the Economics Group Directors, chaired by Friedman, between September 1969 and August 1970.

President's committee files

Shortly after assuming the Presidency, A. W. Clausen established a Managing Committee to provide overall control of the Bank's administration. This Committee played a central role in the Clausen years and was the principal vehicle through which the President administered the Bank.

Clausen inherited a President's Council that had been created by George Woods in 1965, a larger body than the Managing Committee. The President's Council, renamed the Senior Management Council in 1982, continued to exist, although it met less frequently than it had in the past. A staff member in the President's office served as the secretary for both the Committee and the Council.

This series consists of Clausen's personal files on the Managing Committee and the Senior Management Council. The records include material on organization and procedures of the Committee, its agendas, minutes of the meetings of both the Committee and the Council, and indexes to topics discussed in the Managing Committee. The minutes of the ManagingCommittee cover only 1981-1982 and 1985 through July 1987 when Clausen's term ended; complete copies of the minutes are found in the official records of the Committee. Many items have Clausen's initials and the agendas have his annotations.

Results 1 to 50 of 82