Europe and the Marshall Plan

Europe and the Marshall Plan

What do you think Europe would have looked like ten years after the end of WWII if the U.S. had not passed and implemented the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan? What do you think Europe would look like today if those programs had not gone into effect? Explain reasoning.

The reasons that the United States extended $20 billion in relief towards the winning and losing powers of Western Europe were both altruistic as well as self-serving in the interests of the United States at the time. The plan fulfilled the economic and national security interests of the United States, as well as offered much-needed economic and psychological relief to Europe. It also established the United States commitment and interest in European governance and security. (the Marshall Plan, 1947)

The relief plan was known as the Marshall Plan, after then-Secretary of State George C. Marshall. The aid was offered after Europe had been devastated by World War. II. The nations of Europe had suffered such a devastating impact to their economic infrastructure; they could not manufacture anything to sell for hard currency. The democratic socialist governments in most countries were unwilling to adopt the draconian proposals for recovery advocated by old-line classical economists after the populace had endured so much during the war. Thus, in a speech made by Marshall at Harvard University in 1847, Marshall noted that "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," a dislocation with its roots in the bombardment of its cities, economic infrastructure, transportation, and factories. (the Marshall Plan, 1947)

Without the plan, it is difficult to conceive of how Europe would look today -- more along the lines of a developing nation, perhaps, given the limitations of its economy, and the poverty of diet, education, and overall welfare and sanitation of its peoples. Moreover, without instituting the plan, without the United States putting its currency where its rhetoric was, it is unlikely that Europe would have accepted the so-called Truman Doctrine later on as willingly as it did, or the status of NATO and the United Nations as anti-communist and peacekeeping forces dominated by the United States. The Truman Doctrine began with Greece, but was later invoked in the Berlin Airlift and other interventionist and anti-communist activities on the part of the United States. "The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries," declared Truman in 1947, advocating his famous doctrine for the first time. (the Truman Doctrine, 1947)

The Marshall Plan was not simply adopted for humanitarian reasons. At the time, the United States rightly feared that communism, given the terrible economic conditions of the time, could move westward and overtake a dispirited and desperate populace, much as Nazi German forces over swept the Weimar government during the German depression of the 1930s and the German humiliation after World War I, as imposed by the winning powers. Thus, the European nations were asked to "draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid." (the Marshall Plan, 1947)