Marshall Plan & European Recovery
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The three most significant effects of the United States' European Recovery Plan (ERP), better known as the Marshall Plan, were the economic recovery of most of the nations of western Europe, the securing of these countries in an American sphere of influence where they were relatively safe from the threat of the USSR, and the establishment of the basis for European cooperation that eventually led to the European Union (EU), as it came to be called. Although the Marshall Plan is often hailed as one of the most generous international initiatives in history and is also sometimes derided as an attempt to establish American cultural and political hegemony, the truth about this undertaking falls in between these two poles. For, while it is true that American dominance (sometimes unwanted) in many spheres was, indeed, an important effect of the Marshall Plan and while it is equally true that the program was not merely an example of disinterested generosity, neither of these statements explains the essential nature of the ERP. Essentially it was a rare blending of generosity and self-interest in an intelligent political strategy that served the greater interests of Americans and Europeans. This review of the origins, purposes and effects of the Marshall Plan begins with a discussion of the genesis of Marshall's ideas in the problems of Europe after World War II that made humane and economic aid necessary and the nature of the Soviet threat that made a political strategy vitally i
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terest was a vital aspect of the American policy of the period, but the full extent of the doctrine's reach only became evident with the Marshall Plan.
The great difficulty was, however, that while it was clearly understood by most members of Congress that, as Kennan put it, "economic maladjustment . . . makes European society vulnerable to any and all totalitarian movements" any attempt to influence the Soviet Union by giving it this kind of aid would be the end of the Marshall Plan with American legislators (quoted in Kunz 163). Bevin too, for example, had held that the Marshall Plan was "the quickest way to bring down the iron curtain" and he, like many European leaders was, therefore, surprised to see the Soviets almost immediately walk away from the pre-conference with Britain and France (quoted in Reynolds 175). It is now known that Moscow primarily "attributed the Marshall Plan to America's need to extend credits to a dollar-less world so as to sell its surplus production" and this was a very common claim that was voiced in Britain and France as well (Reynolds 174). But Stalin also decided that the ERP was intended both to establish American influence in western Europe and to "detach Eastern Europe from the Soviet sphe
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Approximate Word count = 2923
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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