In June 1947, three months after announcing the Truman Doctrine, the U.S. government offered European nations assistance in rebuilding their economies. The timing was extremely favorable. Many European nations were mired in poverty, starvation, and disease. Recovery efforts had stalled. The brutal winter of 1946-47 made things worse. Capitalizing on these grave conditions, communists were gaining power in France and Italy. Truman and his advisors were alarmed by these developments and proposed bold measures to rehabilitate the European economy.On June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced the European Recovery Plan (also known as the Marshall Plan) during an address at Harvard University (you can read the Marshall Plan by clicking here). Significantly, the U.S. offered aid to virtually all European nations, even those currently under communist domination (even to the Soviet Union directly). Truman and his aides assumed, correctly, that Stalin would not permit Eastern European participation because the plan required that U.S. officials supervise and administer aid. Between 1948 and 1951, sixteen West European nations working with the new Economic Cooperation Administration received $13 billion in U.S. economic assistance. Several nations experienced stunning industrial and agricultural recoveries and became new markets for American products. As conditions improved, communism declined. The Marshall Plan is now considered one of the greatest successes in American foreign policy and has inspired other international development programs.
After reading the Marshall Plan, I would like you to think about and discuss the following: According to Marshall, what are the political and economic conditions in Europe? How does he propose that the United States respond? Was the Marshall Plan necessary? What did the United States gain from offering economic assistance to Europe? Your thoughts…
4 comments:
Are we really scared so much that we're dumb enough to offer aid to Stalin DIRECTLY?! What did we think was going to happen?! Marshall basically says that what they've all heard with news radio stations and such is wring and that Europe is in political and economic turmoil after the war. I think he overexagerated a little. I'm surprised Stalin didn't try to pull another Great Purge. Marshall says we should intervene of course, to fight against poverty, hunger, etc. AKA, get support for capitalism. I don't think the Marshall plan was necessary. Any decision made out of fear is never a good one. And did the U.S. gain anything from bribing these countries? Do they feel safe now? Not at all.
Marshall says that economically Europe is going down. He says that private institutions are being lost and companies are lossing money becuaseof the loss of capital. Also, he says that Europe has lost all of its "physical life" It says that buidlings are getting destroyed and more and more people are dying. He basically says that it is in the hands of America to restore the economy of Europe and the world.In some ways i think the MArshall Plan was neccessary just to give hope to Europeans and the US. Without European economy....american ecconony would just fail...so i think Marshall just over reacted but at the same time did the right thing?!
Marshall basically says that it's the United States' duty to give money to the hurting countries in Europe in order to pertain a healthy world again. I think that it was a good idea for him to do that, but it was really unnecessary to offer to to Stalin directly because it could have resulted in another war where none of them would have survived to win.
According to Marshall, the conditions in Europe were horrible, both economically and politically. Marshall believes that the United States needs to provide aid to those that need it. He tried to stress the US' role as the "knight in shining armor." He also said that the United States should help draft the countries' new economic programs to get the economy stabilized ======> CAPITALISM. "Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist." This quote exemplifies how the US basically wants to go on a Capitalist conversion spree by bribing countries. This is a brilliant plan in regards to the United States. By establishing capitalist economies in these countries, the United States is ensuring that a world market will exist with the US at the helm. Because the US is capitalist, they only stand to gain by having fellow capitalist countries to conduct business with, stimulating the economy in concord with capitalist ideas of privatization and free trade.
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