THE MARSHALL PLAN (THE EUROPEAN RECOVERY ACT), 1948–1951 Term paper

The winter of 1946–1947 in Europe was one of the coldest in recorded history. The economy had not recovered from World War II, and many observers believed that Europe was near collapse. U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, frustrated after fruitless meetings with the Russian, British, and French foreign ministers in Moscow in March and April, asked for a private meeting with Josif Stalin. That meeting convinced Marshall that the Russians believed doing nothing would work to their advantage.

In May 1947, Marshall charged George F. Kennan, head of the Policy Planning Staff in the State Department, to make recommendations on the European situation. Kennan’s report stressed that Europeans should draw up the plans for recovery. Also, American economic aid should be available to all Europe. Finally, the rehabilitation of the German economy would be a vital part of any plan.

Marshall presented the American offer to help in a speech at Harvard University in June. He advocated economic measures to meet economic and social problems, declaring, “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.”

Ernest Bevin, the British foreign secretary, heard a news report on the speech and responded almost immediately. A conference was held in July in Paris, attended not only by west European countries but also by the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister, suspicious of U.S. intentions to begin with, heard from his intelligence service that the MarshallPlan was an American plot. He left the conference bitter and angry. Later, Poland and Czechoslovakia were prevented from participating by the Soviet Union. The European proposal to the United States originally called for $28 billion. Later it was reduced to $19 billion. In the end, the United States provided about $13 billion. Marshall was instrumental in getting Congress to approve the plan in 1948. He was also helped by Arthur Vandenberg, a prominent Republican senator who had been won over to the idea. The Marshall Plan emphasized mutual aid and joint programming by the Europeans. Most of the money supplied by the plan was actually spent in the United States to purchase food and raw material. This allowed rapid economic growth without causing undue hardship for Europeans. With the help of the plan, Europeans reduced inflation, increased productivity, and increased exports. The plan ended officially in December 1951. Experience with the Marshall Plan led to the decision to create the European Coal and Steel Community. The plan also reinforced the division between east and west in Europe. It is generally considered the most successful foreign aid program ever undertaken by the United States.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Using biographies of Marshall, Kennan’s Memoirs, and other sources, trace the development of the idea of the Marshall Plan in the spring of 1947.
2. The Marshall Plan has been considered by some to be an economic counterpart to the Truman Doctrine (1947), which committed the United States to “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Compare these two major developments and come to a conclusion as to whether the Marshall Plan might be better seen as part of the Cold War or as an element in the economic recovery of Europe from World War II.
3. George C. Marshall played a crucial role in selling the plan to Congress. Review accounts of Marshall’s testimony before Congress and his cross-country tour of the United States and determine why he was able to persuade a Congress that had planned to cut spending to agree to the European Recovery Act. 4. Select one of the countries that received Marshall Plan aid and investigate how that aid was used. Did the aid have any impact beyond the area of the national economy?
5. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) was founded in 1949 as the Soviet Union’s answer to the Marshall Plan. Imagine that you are a State Department official required to brief members of the new John F. Kennedy administration on the history and accomplishments of Comecon from its founding to the present (1961).
6. Various people suggested in the early 1990s that a Marshall Plan for eastern Europe was in order. Compare the situation in eastern Europe in 1991 with that of western Europe in 1948 and determine whether a new Marshall Plan for the nineties would have had the same prospects for success as the old plan.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Yalta Conference, 1945” (#36), “The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948–1949” (#45), and “The Founding of the European Economic Community, 1957”(#55). Search under Truman Doctrine, Jean Monnet, and Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon).

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Kennan, George F. Memoirs 1925–1950. New York: Pantheon, 1967. Kennan devotes a chapter to his part in the origins of the Marshall Plan.

Marshall, George C. “Against Hunger, Poverty, Desperation, and Chaos.” The text of Marshall’s speech is in the special issue of Foreign Affairs, 76, no. 3 (May/June 1997).

Secondary Sources

Gimbel, John. The Origins of the Marshall Plan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976. An authoritative discussion of the factors that led the United States to undertake an unprecedented program of foreign aid.

Hogan, Michael J. The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. A comprehensive and thorough treatment of the Marshall Plan.
Leffler, Melvyn P. “The United States and the Strategic Dimensions of the Marshall Plan.” Diplomatic History 12 (Summer 1988), 277–306. An important article on the Marshall Plan and the Cold War.

Maddox, Robert James. “Lifeline to a Sinking Continent,” American Heritage 48, no. 4 (July-August 1997), 90–93. A well-written introduction to the topic.

Maier, Charles S., and Günter Bischof, eds. The Marshall Plan and Germany. New York: Berg, 1991. Articles on the crucial role played by West Germany in the Marshall Plan.

“Marshall Plan.” In The Cold War, 1945–1991, Vol. 3, Resources: Chronology, History, Concepts, Events, Organizations, Bibliography, Archives. Edited by Benjamin Frankel. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1992. A useful sketch of the Marshall Plan with cross-references to related articles in this three-volume encyclopedia. A good place to start.

The Marshall Plan: Against All Odds. Directed by Ira H. Klugerman. Produced by the Educational Film Center, 1997. An interesting, well-informed documentary on the Marshall Plan.

“The Marshall Plan and Its Legacy.” Foreign Affairs 76, no. 3 (May/June 1997). A most useful collection of articles and reflections on the fiftieth anniversary of Marshall’s Harvard speech.

Zubok, Vladislav, and Constantine Pleshakov Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1996. The best source of information presently available on Soviet ideas about the Marshall Plan and related Cold War topics.

World Wide Web

“Marshall Plan, 1947–1952.” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/03. Based on CNN’s Cold War documentary series, the Web site includes background, documents, a transcript of the program, and other features.