We reinterpret the commonly held view in the U.S. that France, by following a policy from 1965 to 1968 of deliberately converting their dollar holdings into gold helped perpetuate the collapse of the Bretton Woods International Monetary System. We argue that French international monetary policy...

The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and...

French international monetary policy under Charles de Gaulle is re-examined in this paper. We argue that the objectives of French policy in the 1960s were consistent with plans developed in the interwar period and Bretton Woods of establishing a symmetrical and co-operative gold-exchange...