On June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall spoke at Harvard University and outlined what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Europe (still devastated by World War II) had just survived one of the worst winters on record. The nations of Europe had nothing to sell for hard currency, and the democratic socialist governments in most countries were unwilling to adopt proposals for recovery proposed by economists. Something had to be done to stop the potential spread of communism westward. (Martin) The United States offered up to $20 billion to seventeen European countries for relief, but only if the European nations could get together and draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid.
Among these seventeen nations were: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. For the first time, they would have to act as a single economic unit. They would have to cooperate with each other. The Marshall Plan also offered aid to the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe, but Joseph Stalin (leader of the Soviet Union) declined the program, noted it as a trick, and refused to participate. The Russian rejection probably made passage of the plan through Congress possible.
(R. R. Bowker and Company pgs. 592-593) The Marshall Plan benefited the American economy as well (Martin.
) The money would be used to buy goods from the United States, and the goods had to be shipped across the Atlantic on American merchant vessels, but it worked (Wright. ) By 1953 the United States had pulled in $13 billion, and Europe was standing on its feet again (Martin. ) Moreover, the Plan included West Germany, which was later reintegrated into the European community (R. R. Bowker and Company pg. 594.
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) The aid was all economic, and it did not include military aid until after the Korean War (Wright. ) In many ways, the Marshall Plan satisfied both those who wanted our foreign policy to be generous and idealistic and those who opposed the idea. It helped feed the starving and shelter the homeless, and at the same time, it stopped the spread of communism and put the European economy back on its feet.
