The Fed's Threat to Redeem Gold

In the post World War II, Bretton Woods era, at that point, only official institutions like foreign central banks could do it. So the US was, in a sense, through NATO defending Europe. They would say to foreign countries, if you redeem your gold, you know, we're going to kick you out of NATO. And finally, France said, okay, kick us out ofNATO. But eventually Nixon shuts the gold window in 71.