Term paper on Marshall Plan

Marshall Plan (1947)

term paper RESOURCE GUIDE

Despite loans from the United States , Western European nations continued to suffer from dire economic problems during the early postwar period. To alleviate these problems and, implicitly, to prevent further inroads by communism, Secretary of State George C. Marshall in his Harvard University commencement speech on June 5, 1947, proposed large-scale aid to all European nations, including the Soviet Union . Ultimately only the noncommunist nations availed themselves of Marshall ‘s proposals, which Congress enacted in 1948 and for which it appropriated more than $12 billion for the period 1948–1951.
Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the origins of the Marshall Plan.

2. Analyze why the Soviet Union rejected the Marshall Plan.

3. Discuss the American public’s reaction to the Marshall Plan.

4. Discuss the consequences of the Marshall Plan for U.S. foreign policy.

5. Compare current aid given to foreign countries with that given under the Marshall Plan.

Suggested Sources : See entries 52 and 55 for related items.

REFERENCE SOURCES

Encyclopedia of the Cold War . Thomas S. Arms. New York : Facts on File 1994. Covers the cold war from the closing days of World War II to the dissolution of the Soviet empire.

GENERAL SOURCES

Brands, H. W. The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War . London : Oxford University Press, 1993. Convincingly demonstrates the cost of the cold war to the United States and other nations, in lives, dollars, human rights, and moral principles.

Carew, Anthony. Labor under the Marshall Plan: The Politics of Productivity and the Marketing of Management Science . Detroit : Wayne State University Press, 1987. Well-researched study of the interaction between the American labor movement and European labor and management personnel that accompanied the implementation of the Marshall Plan.

Dornbusch, Rudiger, et al., eds. Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today . Cambridge , MA : MIT Press, 1993. American,

European, and Japanese economists suggest that Eastern Europe today faces many of the same problems faced by Europe and Japan at the end of World War II.

Fromkin, David. In the Time of the Americans: FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Marshall, MacArthur—The Generation That Changed America ‘s Role in the World . New York : Knopf, 1995. Examines the impact of these famous Americans who influenced world affairs.

Woods, Randall B., and Howard Jones. Dawning of the Cold War: The United States Quest for Order . Atlanta : Georgia Press, 1991. Argues that perception was the most important reality of the cold war; the Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, Berlin airlift, and NATO were all necessary.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Bland, Larry I. The Papers of George Catlett Marshall . Baltimore : Johns Hopkins , 1981. 3 vols. Covers Marshall’s life and career.

Clesse, Armand, and Archie C. Epps. Present at the Creation: The Fortieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan . New York : Harper&Row, 1990. Papers from a 1987 conference to discuss the origins and implementation of the Marshall Plan.

Hogan, Michael J. The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947–1952 . London: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Examines the most successful peacetime foreign policy carried out by the United States in this century.

Mee, Charles L., Jr. The Marshall Plan . New York: Simon&Schuster, 1983. Credits the Marshall Plan with restoration of confidence to Western Europe’s governments and entrepreneurs. Well documented and fast paced.

Puryear, Edgar F., Jr. 19 Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership . Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1997. Excellent study of Marshall’s character and his leadership qualities.

Wexler, Imanuel. The Marshall Plan Revisited: The European Recovery Program in Economic Perspective . Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1983. Focuses on four economic factors: strong production effort, expansion of foreign trade, the creation and maintenance of internal financial stability, and the development of European economic cooperation.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Cray, Ed. General of the Army: George C. Marshall—Soldier and Statesman . New York: Norton, 1990. A splendid biography of one of the giant figures of the mid-twentieth century. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written.

National Portrait Gallery Staff. George C. Marshall: Soldier of Peace . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1997. Good biography with excellent illustrations.

Pogue, Forrest C. George C. Marshall: Statesman, 1945–1959 . New York: Viking, 1987. The fourth and final volume of Pogue’s monumental study of a man who after years of military accomplishment took on the challenges of the post–World War II world.

Saunders, Alan. George C. Marshall: A General for Peace . New York: Facts on File, 1995. Account of the wartime Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and author of plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II and who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Stoler, Mark A. George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century . New York: Macmillan, 1989. Extensive biography of Marshall and his role as chief of staff to both Roosevelt and Truman.

WORLD WIDE WEB

Marshall Plan 50th Anniversary Site . 1997. http://www.marshfdn.com/Operated by the George C. Marshall Foundation, provides valuable links to information. Click on ‘‘European Recovery Program,” an eleven-page article by Anne M. Dixon.