Frank Coe
Encyclopedia
Virginius Frank Coe was a United States
government official who was identified by Soviet defectors Elizabeth Bentley
and Whittaker Chambers
as being an underground member of the Communist Party
and as belonging to the Soviet spy group known as the Silvermaster
ring.
, he attended public schools in Tennessee, Alabama, and Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago
, earning his bachelor of philosophy in 1926 and continuing graduate work into 1928. From 1928 to 1930, he was a member of the staff of the Johns Hopkins University
Institute of Law, returning to the University of Chicago as a research assistant and to write his thesis from 1930-33. From 1933 to 1934, he was a member of the staff of the Brookings Institution
. In the summer of 1934, he was a consultant in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury Department; in the summer of 1936 and spring-summer 1939, he was again a consultant at the Treasury. From the autumn of 1934 until the spring of 1939, he taught economics at the University of Toronto
, remaining a member of its staff on leave for several years thereafter (in his testimony, Coe says "4, 5, or 6 years"). Beginning in 1939, he worked adviser to Paul McNutt, then head of the Federal Security Agency
, and in 1940 as assistant to Leon Henderson
in the Office of Price Administration
(then known as the National Defense Council).
Late in 1940, he returned to the Treasury Department as an assistant director of monetary research, where he stayed for about a year, during which he was special assistant to the United States Ambassador in England. In 1942, he became Executive Secretary of the Joint War Production Committee of the United States and Canada and an assistant to the Executive Director of the Board of Economic Warfare
(later renamed the Foreign Economic Administration
). In late 1944/early 1945, Coe was named Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the Treasury Department, serving as technical secretary at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference
at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
in 1944, he accepted a position as Secretary of the International Monetary Fund in 1946, his successor at Treasury being Harold Glasser
.
Coe resigned from the Fund in December 1952 after public calls were made by Congress for his ouster. The IMF announced his resignation on December 3, 1952.
In 1939, former Communist underground courier Whittaker Chambers
named Coe to then-Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as a communist sympathizer who was providing information to the Ware group
.
In 1948, former NKVD
courier Elizabeth Bentley
, testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee
, mentioned Coe, whom she remembered as one of several important Treasury officials who passed on information to Silvermaster.
Called before the HUAC (chaired by Congressman Karl Mundt), Coe denied under oath having ever been a member of the CPUSA. Subsequently, he was questioned intensely in the IMF about his activities, but he was not sanctioned or removed from his duties. In late 1952, he was called before a Grand Jury in New York (presided over by Senator Herbert O'Conor
) and then before the McCarran Committee on December 1, 1952, both of which were investigating alleged Communist affiliations of U.S. citizens working for the United Nations and other international organizations. On the latter occasion, he declined to answer the question whether he was a member of the Communist Party on Fifth Amendment grounds, citing the example of Alger Hiss
's conviction for perjury.
His final appearance before McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) came on June 5 and 8, 1953, chaired by then Senator Karl Mundt.
Nominally, the investigation was into interference with negotiations to devalue the Austrian schilling in November 1949 as the Soviets had apparently been profiting from the black market. U.S. officials with the European Cooperation Administration (the Marshall Plan
aid agency) reported that a command came via a ticker-tape telecon to break off negotiations at the last minute. The telecon, which was with an anonymous person at the State Department, cited Coe in his capacity as Secretary of the IMF as the source of the order. (In truth, the devaluation had been discussed by and was supported by the Executive Board of the IMF.)
The PSI ascertained that Coe could not have been the source of the communication as he was in the Middle East at the time, and quickly turned to investigating Coe's alleged Communist activities. Coe, who consulted constantly with his lawyer Milton S. Friedman, maintained his fifth-amendment plea, stating at one point that he did not want to see the blacklist extended to include those who had helped him in his search for work.
The subsequent report of the Senate Sub-Committee on Internal Security stated: "Coe refused to answer, on the grounds that the answers might incriminate him, all questions as to whether he was a Communist, whether he was engaged in subversive activities, or whether he was presently a member of a Soviet espionage ring. He refused for the same reason to answer whether he was a member of an espionage ring while Technical Secretary of the Bretton Woods Conference, whether he ever had had access to confidential Government information or security information, whether he had been associated with the Institute of Pacific Relations, or with individuals named on a long list of people associated with that organization."
Regarding his policy actions, it is often mentioned that Coe, together with Treasury Secretary Harry Dexter White
, opposed President Franklin Roosevelt's gold loan program of $200 million to help the Nationalist Chinese Government
stabilize its currency in 1943. However, White's documents indicate while he favored giving economic assistance, he had concerns that cash assistance might be misused or fall into enemy hands.
Arlington Hall cryptographers identified the Soviet agent designated "Peak" in the VENONA as "possibly" Coe, but there is no clear reason for the identification (one secondary sources suggests it was because there was no additional information on Peak). The decrypt in question reports that five reels of Peak's documents concerning U.S.-British Lend-Lease negotiations were en route to Moscow.
A recent investigation into the KGB archives claims that files show Coe to have been a Soviet agent. However, the authors do not quote or reproduce the documents in question, and at least one scholar argues that their testimony should be suspended until the primary sources become available.
, where he joined a circle of expatriates working with the government. In 1962, he was joined by Solomon Adler
in the circle. Coe participated in Mao's Great Leap Forward
, a plan for the rapid industrialization and modernization of China. His works include articles justifying the Rectification campaign.
, China
on June 2, 1980. The New China News Agency listed the cause of his death as a pulmonary embolism and indicated that government officials visited him often during his illness. His brother indicated that he had undergone surgery for cancer eight months earlier.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government official who was identified by Soviet defectors Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...
and Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
as being an underground member of the Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
and as belonging to the Soviet spy group known as the Silvermaster
FBI Silvermaster File
The FBI’s Silvermaster file is a 162-volume compendium of some 26,000 pages of documents relating to the Bureau’s investigation of Communist penetration of the Federal government during the Cold War....
ring.
Birth, education, and career
Born in 1907 in Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, he attended public schools in Tennessee, Alabama, and Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, earning his bachelor of philosophy in 1926 and continuing graduate work into 1928. From 1928 to 1930, he was a member of the staff of the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
Institute of Law, returning to the University of Chicago as a research assistant and to write his thesis from 1930-33. From 1933 to 1934, he was a member of the staff of the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
. In the summer of 1934, he was a consultant in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury Department; in the summer of 1936 and spring-summer 1939, he was again a consultant at the Treasury. From the autumn of 1934 until the spring of 1939, he taught economics at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, remaining a member of its staff on leave for several years thereafter (in his testimony, Coe says "4, 5, or 6 years"). Beginning in 1939, he worked adviser to Paul McNutt, then head of the Federal Security Agency
Federal Security Agency
The Federal Security Agency was an independent agency of the United States government established in 1939 pursuant to the "Reorganization Act of 1939"...
, and in 1940 as assistant to Leon Henderson
Leon Henderson
Leon Henderson was the administrator of the Office of Price Administration from 1941 to 1942.Henderson was born in Millville, New Jersey, where he attended Millville High School, and later Swarthmore College...
in the Office of Price Administration
Office of Price Administration
The Office of Price Administration was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA was originally to control money and rents after the outbreak of World War II.President Franklin D...
(then known as the National Defense Council).
Late in 1940, he returned to the Treasury Department as an assistant director of monetary research, where he stayed for about a year, during which he was special assistant to the United States Ambassador in England. In 1942, he became Executive Secretary of the Joint War Production Committee of the United States and Canada and an assistant to the Executive Director of the Board of Economic Warfare
Board of Economic Warfare
The Office of Administrator of Export Control was established in the United States by Presidential Proclamation 2413, July 2, 1940, to administer export licensing provisions of the act of July 2, 1940 . Brigadier General Russell Lamont Maxwell, United States Army, headed up this military entity...
(later renamed the Foreign Economic Administration
Foreign Economic Administration
In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration was formed to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad. As described by the biographer of the FEA's chief, Leo Crowley, the agency was designed and run by "The Nation's #1 Pinch-hitter".S. L...
). In late 1944/early 1945, Coe was named Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the Treasury Department, serving as technical secretary at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference
United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, commonly known as the Bretton Woods conference, was a gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to regulate the international monetary and financial order after...
at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Bretton Woods is an area within the town of Carroll, New Hampshire, USA, whose principal points of interest are three leisure and recreation facilities...
in 1944, he accepted a position as Secretary of the International Monetary Fund in 1946, his successor at Treasury being Harold Glasser
Harold Glasser
Harold Glasser , was an economist in the United States Department of the Treasury and spokesman on the affairs of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration 'throughout its whole life' and he had a 'predominant voice' in determining which countries should receive aid...
.
Coe resigned from the Fund in December 1952 after public calls were made by Congress for his ouster. The IMF announced his resignation on December 3, 1952.
Allegations and evidence of espionage
The evidence against Coe stems from his being named by two defected spies and ex post examinations of his career.In 1939, former Communist underground courier Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
named Coe to then-Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as a communist sympathizer who was providing information to the Ware group
Harold Ware
Harold Maskell "Hal" Ware was an American Marxist regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture....
.
In 1948, former NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
courier Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...
, testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
, mentioned Coe, whom she remembered as one of several important Treasury officials who passed on information to Silvermaster.
Called before the HUAC (chaired by Congressman Karl Mundt), Coe denied under oath having ever been a member of the CPUSA. Subsequently, he was questioned intensely in the IMF about his activities, but he was not sanctioned or removed from his duties. In late 1952, he was called before a Grand Jury in New York (presided over by Senator Herbert O'Conor
Herbert O'Conor
Herbert Romulus O'Conor , a Democrat, was the 51st Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1939 to 1947. He also served in the United States Senate, representing Maryland from 1947 to 1953....
) and then before the McCarran Committee on December 1, 1952, both of which were investigating alleged Communist affiliations of U.S. citizens working for the United Nations and other international organizations. On the latter occasion, he declined to answer the question whether he was a member of the Communist Party on Fifth Amendment grounds, citing the example of Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
's conviction for perjury.
His final appearance before McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) came on June 5 and 8, 1953, chaired by then Senator Karl Mundt.
Nominally, the investigation was into interference with negotiations to devalue the Austrian schilling in November 1949 as the Soviets had apparently been profiting from the black market. U.S. officials with the European Cooperation Administration (the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
aid agency) reported that a command came via a ticker-tape telecon to break off negotiations at the last minute. The telecon, which was with an anonymous person at the State Department, cited Coe in his capacity as Secretary of the IMF as the source of the order. (In truth, the devaluation had been discussed by and was supported by the Executive Board of the IMF.)
The PSI ascertained that Coe could not have been the source of the communication as he was in the Middle East at the time, and quickly turned to investigating Coe's alleged Communist activities. Coe, who consulted constantly with his lawyer Milton S. Friedman, maintained his fifth-amendment plea, stating at one point that he did not want to see the blacklist extended to include those who had helped him in his search for work.
The subsequent report of the Senate Sub-Committee on Internal Security stated: "Coe refused to answer, on the grounds that the answers might incriminate him, all questions as to whether he was a Communist, whether he was engaged in subversive activities, or whether he was presently a member of a Soviet espionage ring. He refused for the same reason to answer whether he was a member of an espionage ring while Technical Secretary of the Bretton Woods Conference, whether he ever had had access to confidential Government information or security information, whether he had been associated with the Institute of Pacific Relations, or with individuals named on a long list of people associated with that organization."
Regarding his policy actions, it is often mentioned that Coe, together with Treasury Secretary Harry Dexter White
Harry Dexter White
Harry Dexter White was an American economist, and senior U.S. Treasury department official, participating in the Bretton Woods conference...
, opposed President Franklin Roosevelt's gold loan program of $200 million to help the Nationalist Chinese Government
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
stabilize its currency in 1943. However, White's documents indicate while he favored giving economic assistance, he had concerns that cash assistance might be misused or fall into enemy hands.
Arlington Hall cryptographers identified the Soviet agent designated "Peak" in the VENONA as "possibly" Coe, but there is no clear reason for the identification (one secondary sources suggests it was because there was no additional information on Peak). The decrypt in question reports that five reels of Peak's documents concerning U.S.-British Lend-Lease negotiations were en route to Moscow.
A recent investigation into the KGB archives claims that files show Coe to have been a Soviet agent. However, the authors do not quote or reproduce the documents in question, and at least one scholar argues that their testimony should be suspended until the primary sources become available.
Later career
Blacklisted, deprived of his passport (in late 1949), and prevented from traveling to neighboring countries (June 1953), Coe sought work abroad, eventually finding a sponsor in the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, where he joined a circle of expatriates working with the government. In 1962, he was joined by Solomon Adler
Solomon Adler
Solomon Adler was an economist who worked in the U. S. Treasury Department, serving as Treasury representative in China during World War II. He was identified by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley as a Soviet intelligence source and resigned from the Treasury Department in 1950...
in the circle. Coe participated in Mao's Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
, a plan for the rapid industrialization and modernization of China. His works include articles justifying the Rectification campaign.
Death
Coe died in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
on June 2, 1980. The New China News Agency listed the cause of his death as a pulmonary embolism and indicated that government officials visited him often during his illness. His brother indicated that he had undergone surgery for cancer eight months earlier.