Specifications and technical requirements

¶ … Second World War left the world in a complete state of disarray. Most countries around the world had suffered enormous damages, both in terms of human and economic loss. The only actual victorious actor on the international scene was the United States which came out stronger than ever before. There are various explanations for this fact, most of them connected to the American war industry that was created during the conflagration and, most importantly, to the geopolitical and geostrategic position of the country in relation to the main adversaries of the war. From this perspective, the U.S. was the only country able to support a reconstruction plan for Europe and to stand up to the Soviet challenge facing the world after the end of the war. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine were the main tools used by the American side to achieve these two goals. However, in order to actually grasp the importance of these two initiatives for Europe and the world, it is interesting to consider an alternative history, one which did not include the reconstruction plan and the presidential doctrine.

The Truman Doctrine was one of the first political messages that came from the United States after the end of the war. It represented a set of principles which pointed out the necessity of action for the reconstruction of Europe, as well as a political approach to the issue of the U.S.S.R. And its strive for dominance in Europe and the world. In this sense, President Truman presented in front of the Congress in March 1947 the situation concerning Greece and Turkey (the Avalon Project, 2008). He pointed out the need of both Greece and Turkey to receive financial and political support from Western countries. The basics of the doctrine was formulated by Truman who concluded that "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures" (the Avalon Project, 2008).

The most important element of the doctrine pointed out the fact that the U.S.S.R.'s force must be contained and opposed in any situation in which it tends to exercise its power over the sovereign nations of Europe. It was an important step in the history of the post war period because it showed the commitment of western nations to limit the sphere of influence of the communist power. Any other solution or course of action would have determined a situation similar to the one in Eastern Europe.

If the Truman Doctrine did not exist, Greece and Turkey would have been subject to soviet influence. In the beginning, the doctrine also referred to other regions as well. However, taking into account the fact that the Soviet army was considered to be the savior of Eastern Europe from the Nazi force, the Red Army was considered to have legitimacy in these countries. Form this point-of-view, Stalin denied eastern countries to receive support, both financial and political one from the West. He considered it to be an attempt to extend capitalist influence over the countries he liberated from the Nazi danger. In this sense, Stalin decided to extend his influence and to impose certain types of government in countries such as Poland, Hungry, or Romania. The same fate would have had Greece and Turkey as well, should the U.S. not have outlined the Truman Doctrine. It can be said that the doctrine itself was a reaction to the tendency of the soviets to extend their influence.

The Marshall Plan can be seen as the economic component of the Truman Doctrine. It was in fact a set of principles pointed out in 1947 at Harvard by Secretary of State George Marshall (American Rhetoric, 2008). This economic plan too was designed for cater for the economic needs of eastern countries as well, but seeing that the Russian side considered it to be the mere economic arm of the Truman Doctrine, it forced countries under its occupation to reject this reconstruction aid. In fact the financial support would have enabled states to come out of the recession they were facing after the war taking into account that Eastern Europe had been an important battle field in the entire confrontation. However, the adherence to such a plan also included the adoption of certain capitalist economic practices which would have undermined the socialist influence of the Soviet Union. From this point-of-view, the Russians pressured eastern countries to remain outside the system that would eventually be created around these financial perspectives and the organization which would soon come into being, the OCDE.

The direct impact of the Marshall Plan cannot be measured in figures. Taking into account the fact that the total amount of money provided by the U.S. was almost $13 billion at the 1950s value, there were structural changes that took place. In this sense, the U.S. tried to reconsider the mechanisms of the society. More precisely, it financed the change from an industry of war to one of peace, from one that would produce material for the war period and military arsenal, to one that would produce consumer goods and would mark the start of a market economy, based on capitalist principles.