Edward Bernstein, a leading U.S. delegate to the Bretton Woods conference (whom I will discuss in a later post), described his fellow delegates as “technicians moving up the hierarchy,” or as we would call them today, technocrats. Delegates included no fewer than seven future presidents or prime ministers, as well as many more future finance ministers, central bank governors, and top officials of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. An appendix in The Bretton Woods Transcripts contains a full list of delegates and capsule biographies for them. Here is the list of the delegates who would later rise to the top in their national political systems:
- Canada: Louis S. Saint Laurent, prime minister 1948-1957
- Colombia: Carlos Lleras Restrepo, president 1966-1970
- France: Pierre Mendès-France, prime minister 1954-1955
- Greece: Andreas Papandreou, prime minister 1981-1989, 1993-1996
- Iceland: Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, president 1952-1968
- New Zealand: Walter Nash, prime minister 1957-1960
- Peru: Pedro G. Beltrán, prime minister 1959-1961