The Statement Of The Marshall Plan, 1947

The American policy of Marshall Aid sparked both huge appraisal and significant opposition, and to this day it is debated whether it was purely a policy of self-interest and an imposition of America’s political and economic views on a weak and vulnerable Europe, or alternatively one of the greatest acts of altruism and generosity in modern history. It was enormously successful, ‘It was the most unambiguously and triumphantly successful of all America’s post-war policies’ , and helped to create a foundation on which Europe could become an economic power. While there were benefits to America which may have been interpreted as attempts to increase American power and inflamed opposition to the Marshall Plan, the administering of economic aid

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

Citizens of Europe were living in shambles (See Fig 2). Politically, Americans knew spreading capitalistic ways in Europe would gain support from the Europeans, giving the United States trade partners. During the Cold War, Germany became the center of all the tensions between Capitalism and Communism. Germany was the ideal gateway between East and West Europe. Its location made it a suitable place for these political struggles to occur. This angered the Soviets because they too wanted to influence their ways on Europe. The Marshall Plan, following the Truman Doctrine-- which supplied $400 million to countries under totalitarian regimes (Turkey and Greece), appeared to be another anti-communist move made by the United States. However, the United States still successfully achieved the goal of making Europe economically stable.

The U.S. helped Europe gain economic stability after World War II by paying them over 13 billion dollars. By them doing this, they were helping the two continents recover from the damage that they suffered from the last world war. According to document 3, which states, "...the United States should do whatever it can to help restore normal economic health to the world.", communism is not the standard form of government and should not spread as if it is. The whole idea of the Marshall Plan is trouble because the United States was basically trying to gain control over the European

The speech was created primarily Charles Bohlen, a Soviet expert and Marshall’s special assistant, and later revised by Marshall. Department officials, including George Kennan and William Clayton saw the Marshall Plan as a way of restricting Communist growth in Europe, by strengthening the struggling democratic European nations . After the end of WWII in 1945, the majority of Europe was in ruins; over a third of the European industry was destroyed by the war, resulting in weak economies, and millions of people unemployed and starving, causing low morale. As economies were not improving at a rapid enough pace, combined with high unemployment and a hungry population, people started to look for change. Communism began to look promising, and was becoming increasingly popular in Europe through rebels and partisans. In an attempt confine the spread of Communism, Marshall was sent to Moscow to negotiate with Stalin. Initially, Stalin welcomed the possibility of Soviet participation in a U.S funded European reconstruction program. However, Stalin opposed the “idea of a coordinated multilateral aid programme, which was seen to threaten the Soviet political and economic position in Eastern Europe”, and withdrew all support and insisted that

The USSR believed that governments within Europe should be communist and therefore allied with her against capitalism. The next occurrence, which led to an increase in tension between the USA and the USSR, was the announcement by the Americans of the Marshall Plan. The US Secretary of State George Marshall, in a speech made at Harvard on the 5th June 1947 announced the proposal, which later became the Marshall Plan. Marshall offered American financial aid to any European country that required it as long as the European countries approached the United States personally.

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.

Continuing to act as police of the world and leader of capitalism, Truman drafted the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan, which complemented the Truman Doctrine, "was a program of large scale economic and military aid to Europe." Considered by some, this was the most "innovative piece of foreign policy in American History. Where over the next four years the United States contributed over $12 billion to a highly successful recovery effort." The Soviet Union stilled commanded a blockade on highway, rail, and river traffic to West Berlin. As a result, the United States responded by entering into a peacetime military alliance; this being the first time since the American Revolution.

First, the Marshall plan played an immense role in giving funds to help many countries. Sixteen countries including Germany were affected by the Marshall plan. On June 5, 1947 George Marshall, who created and first came up with the idea, of the Marshall Plan presented a speech which touched the lives of many and motivated the devastated people to rebuild their nation and it gave them hope. The Marshall plan helped the families whose houses and their loved ones died by giving money and a home. The Marshall Plan allowed trade between Western Europe and the USA. As said by The Marshall Foundation, “Marshall is the greatest man of World War II. He managed to get along with Roosevelt,

With over 13 billion dollars in aid being delivered to Europe under the Marshall Plan, from 1948 to 1952 many European economies grew at an unprecedented rate. The mutual assistance of the aid led to softening of national competition between many countries in Europe, and served the dual purposes of modernization and cooperation for European countries. At the same time as the Marshal plan was being implemented, the Soviet Union enacted what was know as the, “Cominform” that sought to counter the American influence in post war Europe. This program organized by the Kremlin would work with communist parties in European countries through propaganda efforts to

The United States responded to the “Hawks”, President Harry S. Trueman still wanted and continued to keep communism “bottled up”. In result the Marshall Plan was created (Doc. 2). World War Two had left Europe in pieces, and the United States wanted to gain support from them. The plan was to help Europe rebuild. Between 1948 and 1952, the United States provided more than twelve billion dollars in aid. The United States helped reduce the spread of communism in Western Europe. The Trueman Doctrine basically “bribed” Greece and Turkey to think again about communist expansionism. The United States provided them with four hundred million dollars in military and economic aid. The Berlin Airlift also stopped west Berlin from falling into the Soviets arms. The United States and Britain provided helicopters and planes to drop food, fuel, and other supplies to about two million Berliners everyday. Little children would call these planes “chocolate bombers”.

After world war 2, Europe was in destruction and corruption, therefore, giving a meaning to The Marshall Plan speech because, it dealt with a major situation going on back at that time. Another example why this speech is an effective speech is, that he has all the elements a speech needs. Pathos, Ethos and Logos. He gives emotion and information needed for the audience, grabbing their attention and making them want to listen to what he had to say.

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.

The foreign policy of the United States during the Cold War fully supported the growth of democratic nations. The USSR, however, wanted countries to become communist like them. These opposing views led to tension between the two nations. As a result, in 1947, President Truman issued the Truman Doctrine which stated that the United States would supply aid to any country as long as they pledged to be democratic. The Marshall plan was enacted in 1948 and it was similar to the Truman Doctrine except it provided financial aid to these countries. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States used its foreign policy to help countries resist communist influence.

If countries accepted Marshall Aid, the USA would have control over what that money was spent on. The Soviets didn’t want that as they thought the USA was just trying to westernise countries and turn them away from communism. When Germany and Berlin were separated into 4 zones, the Russian zone was the only one that was a communist area. The Allies then started to merge their zones together to create Bizonia and then soon afterwards Trizonia which consisted of the American, British and French zones. This caused separate development between West and East Germany. They both had different currencies and were both working towards different aims. In the end, that is what drove the two sectors apart and then the two countries later