That evil Harry Truman!

[MKSheppard]

Yamashita's Gold



In 1945, US Intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These would be combined with treasure recovered inside Japan during the US occupation, and with Nazi loot recovered in Europe, to create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism.

Overseen by General MacArthur, President Truman, and John Foster Dulles, this "Black Gold" gave Washington virtually limitless, unaccountable funds, providing an asset base to reinforce the treasuries of America's allies, to bribe political and military leaders, and to manipulate elections in foreign countries for more than fifty years. Drawing on a vast range of original documents and thousands of hours of interviews, Gold Warriors exposes one of the great state secrets of the twentieth century.

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Muhahahah, gotta hand Truman his worth, he had the stones to do this,
and use the gold to help fight back communism.

[Col. Crackpot]

snip

oohhhhhh i must buy this.

Arrghh, don't quote pictures and large amounts of text~CO

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

How do you think the world would react if a similar stash was found in Iraq, and the United States took it? I could imagine that it would piss a lot of people off.

[CelesKnight]

In 1945, US Intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These would be combined with treasure recovered inside Japan during the US occupation, and with Nazi loot recovered in Europe, to create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism.

Seems nobel enough to me.

[Wicked Pilot]

We didn't fight Japan and Germany to liberate them. We fought them to kick their ass. I see no problem in taking this gold. Nor do I see a problem using it to fight Stalin and his fellow communist fucks.

[Sea Skimmer]

How do you think the world would react if a similar stash was found in Iraq, and the United States took it? I could imagine that it would piss a lot of people off.

Actually we found quite a few billion dollars of western currency and gold bullion in Baghdad, along with something like 800 million in currency on three trucks in the north west of the country, Saddam had ordered one billion removed during the invasion and that was most of it. It went straight back into the vault of Baghdad central bank.


As for the WW2 old, I'd be interested in knowing where the Manila stuff came from, the nations own gold and silver reserves where shipped out via USN submarine and I can't think of any other major source, maybe the offices of some oil companies. The Dutch East Indies and Singapore likely had quite a lot, but that would have been hauled to Japan.