The Marshall Plan

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

George Kennan's containment plan is a radical shift in the U.S foreign policy when the Policy of the United States towards the Soviet Union prior, and during the World War II is considered. The containment policy marks the shift of American foreign policy towards the Soviets from alliance to deterrence. Kennan's states in the Long Telegram, "USSR still lives in antagonistic "capitalist encirclement" with which in the long run there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence." (Citation needed) only two years after the end of World War II, a war both the U.S and the Soviet Union fought side by side for a common ambition. If the aspect of radical shift in the U.S foreign policy is seen from a post-Cold War perspective, another radical change can

Almost as soon as World War II had ended, the Cold War began, and the Soviets wasted no time in spreading their communist ideals to nearby countries by forcefully establishing communist governments. Soon after, they held on tightly to their eastern block of Germany as a first defense from western political thought, even going as far as blockading Berlin from any form of help, especially from the West. The West quickly responded by airlifting supplies that included food, coal, etc. . This marked the first instance of the American policy of containment, which was the idea that the Soviet Union and Soviet communism should not be allowed to spread (Background Essay). As time went on and acts of communism began to burst out globally, the U.S. policy of containment became an effective

“Containment” is a geopolitical strategy that was predominantly used by the United States, and its allies, during the Cold War against the Soviet Union to impede the spread of communism. Following the end of World War II, President Truman, and his advisers, lacked a consensus of foreign policy necessary to deal with the Soviet threat and establish American

“The United States countered Soviet expansion and propaganda with a policy of containment, initially with the Truman Doctrine of aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947, the Marshall Plan (1948) for Europe’s economic reconstruction the airlift (1948-49) to the blockaded city of Berlin, and the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949” (Nogee, 2005)

In Shalom’s article, “The Cuban Missile Crisis and Liberal Foreign Policies,” Shalom states that America tried to invade Cuba which was known as the Bay of Pigs. “The Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 was totally organized, financed, equipped, and managed by the United States… the invasion was an utter failure.” (Shalom 2). This shows us that for the most part it was not very organized, and also America used outdated information therefore after this failure of an invasion it raised tensions between American and the Soviets. America did not only try to invade Cuba they also tried to kill their leader known as Castro.

The United States saw the need to help Europe rebuild and came up with the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan gave roughly $13 billion in aid for Europe to rebuild its economy after the end of World War II. The Marshall Plan spanned over a four year period beginning in 1948. The United States have many goals with the Marshal Plan which included: to remove trade barriers, rebuild destroyed regions, modernize industry, have Europe booming again, and prevent the spread of communism. The plan required a lot of different things but the main concern would be they adopted the modern business procedures.

The Marshall Plan was a way to deal with offer assistance to war destroyed European governments to remake system and give occupations. This wander was a meander of the Truman Administration and it passed on General George Marshall's Name since he made the principle addresses proposing this course of action and in light of the way that his named passed on such an extraordinary measure of weight. The plan itself gave just parts of what countries expected to reconstruct, be it steel, crude materials, seeds for harvests, hardware or coal just to give some examples things. Every country gave a rundown of what it required and the US then worked with every country to organize what was accessible.

During the period of the Cold War the United States became involved in global affairs to control areas that seemed dangerous by modernizing and providing economic aid with the hopes of containing communism. In 1947 the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan confirmed the US commitment to keeping Europe free from communism. Then the United States signed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreement in April 1949 confirming American willingness to go to war if necessary to protect democracy from communist challenges. The events of 1949, when the Chinese communists emerged victorious from their civil war and the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, seemed to confirm to the United States that communism was expansive and aggressive. By 1950, the Cold War had become pervasive both at home and abroad. In foreign policy terms the United States had proclaimed itself as the only major protection against communist expansion. In five short years the world had transformed dramatically. Harry S. Truman quickly made his mark as President and quickly turned cold warrior. President Truman proclaimed that the United States should act as the leader of an international moral crusade against an evil and aggressive foe, meaning the Soviet Union. Korea was not explicitly part of the United States sphere on interest, as outlined by Secretary of State Dean Acheson in a speech to the National Press Club in January 1950. In the post-war era American policy makers saw the world as

On April 17, 1961 one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes of the Cold War was made, the attempted invasion of the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. The failed invasion happened under the administration of John F. Kennedy and caused the deaths and imprisonment of over 1500 Cuban exiles fighting to over throw the rule of Fidel Castro. The aftermath caused much larger impacts towards United States foreign policy. The invasion made the United States look imperialistic to the rest of the world and allowed the Soviet Union to portray America as an aggressive and hostile country to its neighbors, which in turn allowed the Soviet Union to aid Cuba even more for future affairs. The Bay of Pigs also caused President Kennedy to distrust many of his advisers

Castro intended on helping Cuba’s high poverty, but Castro did not turn Cuba into a democracy like he said he would (“Cuban missile Crisis”2). In 1960 the soviet premier attempted to convince Castro to become communist, soon after this castro became communist, probably influenced by the soviet premier (“Cuban missile Crisis”3). A new american president, that could probably change the war, was coming into office around this time, President Kennedy. The new president would take on the problem of this new cuban leader (International Encyclopedia of the… 1). Before him, Eisenhower trained about 1,500 Cuban Exiles in secret to try to take over Cuba, Kennedy allowed this to go on. On april 17, the exils attempted to invade Cuba(“Cuban missile Crisis”3). Since Castro had found out about the invasion, he was ready and defeated the the incoming force easily(“Cuban missile Crisis”3-4). The failed invasion seemed to help the Cuban opinion of Castro. He was now an obvious threat and so the U.S. decided to start operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose was a secret operation to get rid of Castro, it was an operation where the U.S. would try to sabotage Cuba, but Operation Mongoose never ended up happening. The U.S.S.R. did not want to lose Cuba so they decided to secretly send weapons into Cuba, including nuclear weapons (“Cuban missile Crisis”4). These arm shipments would lead to one of the

The Cuban Missile crisis was a 13-day dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union, mainly concerning Soviet missiles placed in Cuba, 90 miles off the American coast. (Thesis: The Cuban Missile Crisis had an important effect on the direction of the Cold war.) After becoming Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro began running the Cuban government with a considerably greater Soviet model of rule, causing the United States to become concerned about the direction of this new government, especially considering it was so near to the U.S. On April 17–20, 1961, the United States attempted an overthrow of the Cuban government in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

The European Recovery Program also known as The Marshall Plan was a U.S supported program intended to restore the economies of 17 western and southern European nations with a specific end goal to bring about stable conditions and to help the democratic countries survive. Secretary of State George C. Marshall and his aid idea was initially offered to all the European nations, including those under military occupation by the Soviet Union Direct grants represented by far most of the aid, with the rest of the type of loans. To organize the European membership, 16 states, drove by the United Kingdom and France, built up the Organization of European Economic Cooperation to recommend a four-year recuperation program.

West Germany overcame their economic difficulties rapidly due to assistance from the Marshall Plan. Which I have talked about earlier this plan was named for U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, this plan was an American’s policy to provide money, goods, and other economic aid to Western European countries after WWII in exchange for social and diplomatic authority. However, East Germany floundered under its Soviet regulations, and life for those in East Germany was far harder than for its former citizens in West Germany.

Marshall Plan was also invoked in the third world, global poverty, American inner cities, the Balkans, the Middle East, and, finally, Iraq. It can be said that "Marshall Plan" has become a metaphor for any very large scale government program that is designed to solve a specific social problem.