Marshall Plan Effectiveness

Truman gave his iconic Truman Doctrine speech in front of a joint session of congress. This speech outlined the broad strokes of the Truman Doctrine as well as marked the declaration of the Cold War as well as sets the direction of American foreign policy for the next 40 years. Truman used this speech which was broadcast on the radio across the country as a form of going public to help his doctrine pass through congress. The Truman Doctrine finically aided Greece and Turkey in their ongoing war against communism as well as established Truman’s containment policy towards communism. A year later in 1948 when Truman planned to spread a program much like the Truman Doctrine across Europe in the form of the European Recovery Program. Truman knew that due to his high unfavorable rates he would need to use bargaining this time instead of going public to enact his plan. The Marshall plan is born with Truman recruits popular Secretary of State General George C. Marshall to be the face of the plan in order to garner support. While Marshall was the face of the plan Truman worked diligently behind the scenes to garner support for the plan from republicans. The Marshall Plan ultimately passed and in the end sent 13 million dollars in relief funds to Europe to aid in rebuilding from World War II in addition to holding at bay the treat of communism spreading. Truman became a shining example of how going public and bargaining both of there place in the

After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union had very different ideas on how to rebuild. The United States, led

The Cold War started between the time span of 1945 to 1949 (1). There was no exact date of in starting because the war was fought with no battle causticities. The war was a conflict over how Germany and other parts of Europe should be run after World War two. The tension was between the western BLOC nations and the Eastern BOC nations (1). The United States was the leader of the Western BLOC nations along with the NATO nations and

To discuss the development of France’s economy I will focus on the Marshall Plan. Marshall Plan, as an approach of the United States to control the Europe and oppose the Soviet Union, also helped the Europe with their bad economics. After the second world war, France tried to use government intervention by Jean Monnet to recover its economics. In fact,

point of view of Russia the Five Year Plans had been a failure in that

First and foremost, a great deal of Europe’s success would not have happened without its initial aid from the United States. After helping destroy so much of the continent, the U.S. pumped billions and billions of dollars back into the European economy through The Marshall Plan. It was named after Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who said “The world of suffering people looks to us for leadership. Their thoughts, however, are not concentrated alone on this problem. They have more immediate and terribly pressing concerns where the mouthful of food will come from, where they will find shelter tonight, and where they will find warmth. Along with the great problem of maintaining the peace we must solve the

The strategy used for attacking Canada was poorly planned because instead of attacking Montreal, the center of population, the plan was spilt into 3 invasions of Detroit, Niagara, and Lake Champlain

The idea of creating the Marshall Plan can be credited to General George C. Marshall Jr. of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Marshall served as the Secretary of State after his time at war. With the help of the American diplomat, George Kennan and President Harry Truman, Marshall was able to see through with creating his plan. In 1946, Kennan was ordered by

The Cold War could be described as one of the most 'distant' wars in history because there was no direct military fighting involved, only threats and fights through other countries. Although, many lives and money was lost, it was not as fatal and severe as World War II. In 1947, or right after World War II, the Cold War began due to conflict between the United States and Soviet Union. It ended on December 26, 1991 and the United States endured most of the damage that was a result of the war while Russia became a larger territory through the countries they gained power over. The war took place in the U.S., USSR, Europe, Cuba, Vietnam, Greece, Korea, East Asia and South America and lasted for over forty years. Although both contributed to the war, the United States should be blamed for the increasing tensions of the Cold War because of the NATO, Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine.

The Cold War started with the end of WWII 1945 and finally ended in 1991. It was against the Soviet Union and the United States. This “war” was fought through nuclears threats and actions. Soviets and US remain the two last superpowers. Tensions grew between the soviet union and the United States which led to world changing technologies like nuclear bombs on both sides of the war.

The Marshall Plan was significant because it rebuilt Europe and helped in the policy of containment, stopping the spread of communism. It also caused the countries the US helped to trade with the US, helping the US eventually make up the money and be rich.

Although the Cold War had many negative influences on global society, it also helped to create a stable political world, as evidenced by the fact that during the Cold War era, civil wars, nationalistic uprisings, and ethnic cleansings were almost non-existent. As well, the world economic situation was subsequently greatly improved by the military build-up caused by the Cold War. The implementation of the American "Marshall Plan" and the Communist "Molotov Plan", the nuclear arms race, and the global military build-up all served to create global political stability and economic prosperity.

Famine and unemployment, coupled with the near destruction of the continent’s infrastructure left Europe on the brink of economic collapse and starvation. America began supplying financial aid to Europe immediately after the end of the war, George C. Marshall developed the first piece of foreign policy that would serve to not only assist in the rebuilding of Europe, but also counter the growing communist influence on the continent. “Marshall was convinced the key to restoration of political stability lay in the revitalization of national economies. Further he saw political stability in Western Europe as a key to blunting the advances of communism in that region.” http://marshallfoundation.org/marshall/the-marshall-plan/history-marshall-plan/

In June 1947, the United States announced the Marshall Plan, intended to help economic recovery in Europe and thus prevent the spread of Communism in a Europe that was increasingly becoming “a breeding ground of hate”, thus providing a comforting environment for the rise of the Marxist ideology. At first, the Marshall Plan seemed to be a success, with economic aid worth $17 billion being made available to Europe and ensuring the protection of democratic governments in Turkey and Greece. Marshall Aid did help economic recovery in Europe, erasing unemployment and improving living standards greatly. Most Western European nations were happy to accept American aid in order to redevelop their economies. However, Stalin forbade any Eastern European countries from accepting the Plan and setup organizations like the Cominform and Comecon instead, to further tighten Stalin’s grip over Eastern Europe.

Marshall aid officially known as the European Economic Recovery Program (ERP). Was a containment method used by the USA to stop the spread of communism from 1948 – 1952. Marshall aid was used to help economically struggling European countries e.g. Britain (26%), France (18%) and West Germany (11%). The US government gave $13 billion dollars to Europe (Worth $130 billion dollars in todays currency). There are many primary and secondary interpretations such as the transcript of the Marshall aid document and books that state that the aid was a good will and some state or could be interpreted that it was a policy of American self interest.