Origin of the Fort Knox Conspiracy Theory

President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have speculated that gold could be missing from the vaults in Fort Knox, even saying they may visit the Kentucky stronghold to check the nation’s bullion reserves for themselves. But they didn’t start the conspiracy theory.

It all began after President Nixon shocked the world by suddenly ending the gold standard in 1971—eliminating the convertibility of dollars to gold—which was followed by a rapid uptick in inflation. Amid concern that delinking the dollar from gold, could destabilize the U.S. currency, the former general counsel of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., Peter Beter, published The Conspiracy Against the Dollar in 1973. Beter claimed, without proof, that David Rockefeller, then CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, had directed the president to end the gold standard so he and his wealthy family could profit. The Rockefellers, Beter argued, wanted to “get at the gold at Fort Knox,” and had organized a convoy of Army vehicles to transport bullion from Kentucky to Mexico, from where it would be shipped to Switzerland, with plans to eventually sell the gold for huge profit. Media outlets picked up on the claims and  some members of Congress ran with the story, questioning Treasury Secretary William Simon about the whereabouts of the gold.

Secretary Simon responded by inviting the Congressmen to “audit” the gold. In September of 1974, ten members of Congress entered the vaults, along with reporters and photographers. Representative John Rousselot declared, “I think it’s there.” Congress then had the General Accounting Office weigh all the nation’s gold bars to ensure they were all genuine.

Finally, the firestorm was put out, but the rumors of gold missing from Fort Knox were never entirely extinguished.