The Marshall Plan
During the winter of 1946-47, the worst in memory, Europe seemed on the verge of collapse. For the victors in World War II, there were no spoils. In London, coal shortages left only enough fuel to heat and light homes for a few hours a day. In Berlin, the vanquished were freezing and starving to death. On the walls of the bombed-out Reichstag, someone scrawled "Blessed are the dead, for their hands do not freeze." European cities were seas of rubble--500 million cubic yards of it in Germany alone. Bridges were broken, canals were choked, rails were twisted.
Across the Continent, darkness was rising. Americans, for the most part, were not paying much attention. Having won World War II, ...
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they believed, could save Europe from chaos and communism.
With sureness of purpose, some luck and a little convincing, these men persuaded Congress to help rescue Europe with $13.3 billion in economic assistance over three years. That sum--more than $100 billion in today's dollars, or about six times what America now spends annually on foreign aid--seems unthinkable today. The European Recovery Program, better known as , was an extraordinary act of strategic generosity. How a few policymakers persuaded their countrymen to pony up for the sake of others is a tale of low politics and high vision
Yet their achievement is recalled by many scholars as a historical blip, a moment of virtue before the cold war really locked in. A truer, if more grandiloquent, assessment was made by Winston Churchill. , said England's war leader from his retirement, was "the most unsordid act in history."
It was, at the time, a very hard sell. The men who wanted to save Europe--Harriman, Under Secretary ...
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suit amid the colorful academic robes, Marshall was typically plain-spoken and direct: "Our policy," he said, "is not directed against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos."
The response in the american press was tepid, but the leaders of Europe were electrified. Listening to the address on the BBC, British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin regarded Marshall's speech as a "lifeline to a sinking man." Bevin immediately headed for Paris to urge the French to join him in grabbing the rope.
Marshall did not want Washington to appear to be dictating to its allies. "The initiative, I think, must come from Europe," he had said at Harvard. But the ...
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The Marshall Plan. (2006, March 6). Retrieved April 26, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Marshall-Plan/42294
"The Marshall Plan." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 6 Mar. 2006. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Marshall-Plan/42294>
"The Marshall Plan." Essayworld.com. March 6, 2006. Accessed April 26, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Marshall-Plan/42294.
"The Marshall Plan." Essayworld.com. March 6, 2006. Accessed April 26, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Marshall-Plan/42294.
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