HISTORY OF THE “NEW IRAQI DINAR”
“How shipping tons of U.S. Iraq
In February, the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform held a hearing that criticized the decision to ship U.S. Iraq
The currency that was shipped into Iraq Iraq
The plan, which had two stages, was designed to work in Iraq United
States Kuwait
One of the most successful and carefully planned operations of
the war has been held up to criticism and ridicule.
The final
details of the plan were reviewed in the White House Situation Room by
President Bush and the National Security Council on March 12, 2003 . I attended that meeting. Treasury Secretary John Snow opened
the presentation with a series of slides. “As soon as control over the Iraqi
government is established,” the first slide read, we plan to “use United States Baghdad
To carry out the first stage of the plan, President Bush issued
an executive order on March 20, 2003 ,
instructing U.S. Iraq Baghdad Baghdad
On April 29, Jay Garner, the retired lieutenant general who
headed the reconstruction effort in Iraq Washington Baghdad
This success paved the way for the second stage of the plan. In
only a few months, 27 planeloads (in Boeing 747 jumbo jets) of new Iraqi
currency were flown into Iraq
The new currency proved very popular. It provided a sound
underpinning for the financial system and remains strong, appreciating against
the dollar even in the past few months. Hence, the second part of the currency
plan was also a success.
The story of the currency plan is one of several that involved
large sums of cash. For example, just before the war, Saddam stole $1 billion
from the Iraqi central bank. American soldiers found that Iraqi money in his
palaces and shipped it to a base in Kuwait Kuwait
A 2003 presidential order instructed U.S. Iraq U.S.
Finally, when Iraq United States
The new Iraqi currency proved to be very popular. It gave a
sound underpinning to the financial system and remains strong. One of the most
successful and carefully planned operations of the war has been held up for
criticism and even ridicule. As these facts show, praise rather than ridicule
is appropriate: praise for the brave experts in the U.S. Treasury who went to
Iraq in April 2003 and established a working Finance Ministry and central bank,
praise for the Iraqis in the Finance Ministry who carefully preserved payment
records in the face of looting, praise for the American soldiers in the 336th
Finance Command who safeguarded the found money, and, yes, even praise for
planning and follow-through back in the United States.
This essay appeared in the New York Times on February 27, 2007 . Available from the Hoover Press is Strategic Foreign
Assistance: Civil Society in International Security, by A. Lawrence Chickering,
Isobel Coleman, P. Edward Haley, and Emily Vargas-Baron.
To order, call 800.935.2882 or visit www.hooverpress.org.
John B. Taylor is the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Senior
Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of
Economics at Stanford University Introductory Economics Center
He has a long and distinguished record of public service. Among
other roles, he served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic
Advisors from 1989 to 1991 and as Under Secretary of the Treasury for
International Affairs from 2001 to 2005.
He is currently a member of the California Governor’s Council of
Economic Advisors.
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