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'''Harry Dexter White''' (October 9, 1892 &ndash; August 16, 1948) was an [[United States|American]] economist and senior [[U.S. Department of Treasury]] official. He was the first head of the [[International Monetary Fund]], played an important role in formation of the [[World Bank]]. He was also a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] secret agent&mdash;"the most highly-placed asset the Soviets possessed in the American government."<ref>John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), ISBN 0300123906, p. 258</ref> White succeeded in subverting American policy to favor Soviet interests over U.S. interests. Unlike other [[Comintern]] operatives such as [[Alger Hiss]] or [[Julius Rosenberg]], White died before he could be brought to trial. Consequently, Harry Dexter White's case has not been publicly scrutinized as closely as the Hiss and Rosenberg cases, yet in some respects, White's subversion of US [[foreign policy]] may have been even more damaging.

With the signing of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]] and the truce with Japan after the [[Mongolia#Khalkhin Gol|Battle of Khalkhin-Gol]], Stalin had non-aggression agreements with the major powers on his borders. Stalin initiated negotiations with Hitler about joining the Tripartite Pact of [[Nazi Germany]], [[Fascist Italy]] and Japan.<ref>"The participation of Russia in the Tripartite Pact appeared to [Molotov] entirely acceptable in principle, provided that Russia was to cooperate as a partner and not be merely an object." [http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-06.html#17 Memorandum of the Conversation Between the Führer and the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov, in the Presence of the Reich Foreign Minister, the Deputy People's Commissar, Dekanosov, as Well as of Counselor of Embassy Hilger and Herr Pavlov, Who Acted as Interpreters, on November 12, 1940]. Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941 [http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-06.html VI. The U.S.S.R. and the Three Power Pact, September 25-November 26, 1940]: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office. Edited by Raymond James Sontag and James Stuart Beddie. United States Department of State. Publication 3023. U. S. Government Printing Office. 1948. Cf. Winston S. Churchill, ''[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=z2n8MO3DQ68C Their Finest Hour]'', Vol. 2 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1986), ISBN 0395410568, p. 515</ref> Still, Moscow was uneasy about its security. Moscow's intelligence services took an active role in attempting to deflect the Japanese away from the Soviet Union. First was their spymaster in Tokyo, [[Richard Sorge]]. Sorge was attached to the German Embassy in Tokyo. His assistant was [[Hotsumi Ozaki]], an adviser to Japanese Premier [[Fumimaro Konoe]] and spokesman for the South Manchurian Railroad. Mr. Ozaki was aided by [[Kinkazu Saionji]], Secretary of the Japanese Council of the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]].<ref>Testimony of Major General Charles A. Willoughby, August 9, 1951, Institute of Pacific Relations, Hearings, Part 2, pp. 363-364; p. 505.</ref><ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'', Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2002, pg. 12, 36-39.</ref>