Background
Frank Coe was born in 1907 in Richmond, Virginia, United States.
Frank Coe was born in 1907 in Richmond, Virginia, United States.
He was a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he also did postgraduate work.
Before joining the Treasury Department in 1934, he was a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Institute of Law, the University of Chicago, and the Brookings Institution. In 1939, Coe became economic adviser to the Federal Security Agency. He later served as financial adviser to the National Security Council, special assistant to the United States embassy in London, assistant to the director of the Board of Economic Warfare, assistant administrator of the Foreign Economic Administration, and director of monetary research in the Treasury Department. Two years later, Coe was accused of being a spy by Elizabeth Bentley, a confessed Soviet agent. At hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he denied the charges and returned to his job at the Washington-based IMF. Similar allegations were made against Coe in 1952, at which time, in hearings before the Subcommittee on Internal Security of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination sixty-five times. Indignant senators demanded he be removed from his position at IMF. Two days after his testimony, he was forced to resign. As secretary, he had participated in all meetings of the board of governors and directors of the IMF. Coe was accused of using his position at the IMF to participate in a conspiracy to prevent a devaluation of the Austrian currency. Such a devaluation was viewed as favorable to American interests but unfavorable to the Soviet Union. Although witnesses testified that Coe had instructed them to end currency negotiations with the Austrians, his superior at the IMF, H. Merle Cochran, said that during that time, Coe had actually been traveling in the Middle East. In 1953, Coe was called to testify before the Senate Investigations Subcommittee chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. His appearance was complicated by the fact that he was out of the country when the committee first called him. His wife stated she did not know his whereabouts, saying only that he had left two months earlier. The Senate committee then asked the Justice Department to help track Coe down. Coe returned to the United States soon after, stating that he had been in Mexico seeking employment, since he could no longer find work in the United States. At the hearings, he again invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer when asked whether he was or had been a Communist or whether he had engaged in espionage while serving at the IMF. He said he was not currently engaged in espionage and that he was not engaged in espionage on December 2, 1952. He would not answer the question as it applied to December 1, 1952, his last day with the IMF. After his appearance, Senator McCarthy publicly called on the State Department to prevent Coe from leaving the country. Coe accused the senator of persecuting him, charging that the request to the State Department was being made to prevent him from seeking employment. He claimed that, on his trip to Mexico, he had not knowingly met with any members of the Soviet secret police but refused to say whether he had met with members of the Communist party. In 1956, Coe waived his Fifth Amendment rights and testified that he had not been a Soviet spy, although he continued to refuse to answer questions about Communism. In 1958, he immigrated to China, where he lived for the remainder of his life. At the time of his death, the official Chinese press agency described him as "a close friend of the Chinese people" and said that several senior officials had visited him during his illness.
His first marriage, to Nora Mallinson, ended in divorce. They had two children. He later married Ruth Evans. They also had two children.
