The Marshall Plan, initiated by Secretary of State George C. Marshall in 1947, aimed to rebuild war-torn Europe and deter communist expansion following World War II, ultimately providing over $12 billion in aid. This U.S. initiative significantly boosted European industrialization and created markets for American goods while precluding Soviet bloc involvement. The plan is recognized as a major humanitarian effort and established the foundation for U.S. foreign aid policies, significantly impacting the region's recovery and preventing the spread of communism.

1. HISTORY CAMBRIDGE A2 (PAPER 3)
PRESENTATION 17
MARSHALL PLAN 1948

3. REBUILDING EUROPE
• In the immediate post-World War II period, Europe remained ravaged by
war and thus susceptible to exploitation by an internal and external
Communist threat.
• In a June 5, 1947, speech to the graduating class at Harvard University,
Secretary of State George C. Marshall issued a call for a comprehensive
program to rebuild Europe.
• Fanned by the fear of Communist expansion and the rapid deterioration
of European economies in the winter of 1946–1947, Congress passed the
Economic Cooperation Act in March 1948 and approved funding that
would eventually rise to over $12 billion for the rebuilding of Western
Europe.

5. MARKETS FOR AMERICAN GOODS
• The Marshall Plan generated a resurgence of European industrialization
and brought extensive investment into the region.
• It was also a stimulant to the U.S. economy by establishing markets for
American goods. Although the participation of the Soviet Union and East
European nations was an initial possibility, Soviet concern over potential
U.S. economic domination of its Eastern European satellites and Stalin’s
unwillingness to open up his secret society to westerners doomed the idea.
• Furthermore, it is unlikely that the U.S. Congress would have been willing
to fund the plan as generously as it did if aid also went to Soviet Bloc
Communist nations.

7. NOBEL PRIZE
• Thus the Marshall Plan was applied solely to Western Europe, precluding
any measure of Soviet Bloc cooperation. Increasingly, the economic
revival of Western Europe, especially West Germany, was viewed
suspiciously in Moscow.
• Economic historians have debated the precise impact of the Marshall
Plan on Western Europe, but these differing opinions do not detract from
the fact that the Marshall Plan has been recognized as a great
humanitarian effort. Secretary of State Marshall became the only general
ever to receive a Nobel Prize for peace. The Marshall Plan also
institutionalized and legitimized the concept of U.S. foreign aid programs,
which have become a integral part of U.S. foreign policy.

9. 13 BILLION DOLLARS
• The Plan challenged the countries of Europe to get together and produce
a plan for regeneration, which the US would fund. Only countries which
refused to co-operate with others would be refused funding.
• The British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin called the Plan ‘a lifeline to
sinking men, bringing hope where there was none’ and by 12 July he had
organised a meeting of European nations in Paris, which asked for $22
billion of aid.
• Stalin was invited but – seeing the Plan as a US plot to undermine the
Soviet Union – he forbade Cominform countries to take part. Truman
asked Congress for $17 bn, and Congress (after the scare of the collapse
of Czechoslovakia in March 1948) authorised $13 bn.

11. MARSHALL AID
• The first ship set sail from Texas to France with 19,000 tons of wheat.
Marshall Aid took the form of fuel, raw materials, goods, loans and food,
US machinery to help factories to get back to normal, advisers to help
rebuild transport systems. There were nets for Norwegian fishermen, wool
for Austrian weavers, and tractors for French farmers. Britain was the main
recipient, getting $3 bn aid. France, Italy, West Germany and the
Netherlands all received huge amounts.
• Marshall Aid had a huge effect on Europe; the years 1948-1952 were a
time of massive economic growth. It also stopped the spread of
Communism – one of the hungry teenage boys in Germany who was given
soup by American trucks driving onto his schoolyard was Helmut Kohl: who
grew up to be the first Chancellor of a free and unified Germany.