In recent weeks, the speculators have been waging on all-out war on the American dollar. The strength of a nation's currency is based on the strength of that nation's economy - and the American economy is by far the strongest in the world. Accordingly, I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators.

I have directed Secretary Conally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets, except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States.

-Richard Nixon, August 15, 1971

Which of the following statements describes a major cause of the policy shift outlined in the passage?

A. The U.S dollar's value had fallen steeply each year since the conclusion of World War II.
B. Several European leaders had agreed to establish the Bretton Woods system.
C. The American gold mining industry had collapsed as a result of its monopolistic structure.
D. Foreign countries had begun exchanging their U.S dollars for gold at an increasing rate.

Indeed, the Bretton Woods system was founded in 1944 in order to provide the world with an international economic system that would be stable and would favor the growth of world economies. It established a fixed exchange rate of 35$ per ounce of gold, backed by American gold reserves.

The system worked well until the 1960s, when the Vietnam War and the monetary inflation overvalued the dollar, causing economic turmoil in the West. In 1971, several nations started getting rid of their dollars, exchanging them for gold in enormous amounts. This resulted in a very steep devaluation of the dollar and Nixon retaliated by suspending the convertibility of the dollar into gold and to let the market determine its value.