The Marshall plan was an unprecedented act of American generosity. Europe
was a collection of old and complex cultures.
"In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe, the
physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines
and railroads was correctly estimated but it has become obvious during
recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than
the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy.
...................
The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or
four years of foreign food and other essential products - principally from
America - are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must
have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political
deterioration of a very grave character. The remedy lies in breaking the
vicious circle and restoring the confidence of the European people in the
economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.......
Furthermore, governments, political parties, or groups which seek to
perpetuate human misery in order to profit therefrom politically or
otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States."
United States Secretary of State, George C. Marshall at Harvard University
on 5 June 1947.
Americans in favour of the Marshall Plan feared delay in providing aid to
the war-impoverished countries of Europe put them in danger of Soviet
domination. On 25 February 1948, a Soviet-backed, communist coup took place
in Czechoslovakia. American shock at the coup reduced opposition to the
Marshall Plan..
European nations outside the Soviet bloc were members of the plan from the
beginning. The exceptions were Franco's Spain and West Germany.
After two years of the plan and less than five years after World War II,
most of Europe was at or near prewar levels and industrial production was
not merely at prewar levels but 15 percent above.
Americans feared that after World War II the financial distresses and
unemployment of the Great Depression would return, American prosperity was a
stated goal of the Marshall Plan.
As a way of boosting exports, the plan had wide appeal to American business
people, bankers, workers, and farmers.
Soon after passage of the Foreign Assistance Act (The Marshall Plan),
Kiplinger Magazine, a printed a guide to show Americans how to benefit. "The
Marshall Plan is very much a business plan. . . ," it concluded. "At its
root is an office and factory and warehouse job. The Marshall Plan means
work, and you will be one of the workers." During the years of the Marshall
Plan, when much of the money European participants received was spent on
US-produced food and
manufactured goods, the American economy bloomed.
Lyndon Johnstons' offer in SE Asia was rejected. How do you apply a Marshall
Plan to a primitive society that operates under values that we do not know
or even begin to understand?
Sinclair
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