British economy teetered on the brink, and only the Americans could help pull it back.60 Yet the Americans showed no inclination to help. The U.S. Treasury kept the pressure on the British government by blocking what in normal times would have been a simple request: the repatriation of dollars that Britain had supplied to the International Monetary Fund. The previous night Macmillan had frantically called American officials to get them to release these British-owned dollars, but Treasury Secretary Humphrey refused to allow the transaction.
