Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the idea behind a speech made by U.S. Secretary of State, George C. Marshall that suggested that the United States assist Europe with their economic devastation; however, there was no actual “plan.” Once the plan was approved and became the European Recovery Program it lasted from April 1948 to December 1951. During that time there was approximately $12.5 billion dollars given to 12 European countries. The Marshall Plan did have its faults but overall was a success in assisting European economy to get back on its feet. The cost of World War II was immense among the European states. The United States had been sending aid to European states, even before the U.S. joined the war in December of 1941. In August of 1941 the…

Following World War II, all of Europe was left in a clutter of disarray. Instead of watching Europe endure the hardships left from the war, the United States went to Europe’s aid. From 1947 to 1952, European nations experienced a time of massive growth. The Plan aimed to repair the economic and political damages from the war. The plan was a response to American concerns that communist parties were growing stronger across Europe and that the Soviets might intervene. The Marshall Plan also…

Two the main source of contention with the United States was Communism. Calling to action the Marshall plan, the United States sought to abate the spread of Communism through its use of Neo-imperialism. Russia was also able to spread its political views of Communism by invading smaller developing nations. Postwar international world order was a division between the East and West, there was no singular contender for this role. Post World War Two the United States was under the Truman…

To what extent was the Marshall Plan a successful exercise of US hegemony. This essay will attempt to answer the question above by first analyzing the circumstances preceding the Marshall Plan in order to contexualise its development. It will then move onto examining its role as part of a containment policy led by the US to counter Soviet influence. It will also examine how the US dollar became the world reserve currency and how this further cemented US hegemony. In an attempt to examine the…

The Marshall Plan On June 5, 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall spoke at the Harvard graduation. The speech he gave would come to mark the turning point in American history. Marshall proposed a plan that would offer billions of American dollars to distraught European countries thereby establishing an unprecedented level of US peacetime involvement in European affairs. This plan to “save” Europe was called the Economic Relief Program (ERP) better known as the Marshall Plan. Many at the…

it was America's job to contain Communism with his Truman Doctrine in which he stressed that the present situation in Greece and Turkey and the need for financial and economic aid from America. Secondly, Secretary of State George Marshall unveiled a recovery plan for Europe called the Marshall Plan in which he reported that the problem “is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the…

The Marshall Plan gave Europe over $13 billion to help rebuild their economy. Truman said this was necessary because communism thrives in countries with a weak economy. The Marshall plan was named after the Secretary of State George C. Marshall who came up with the idea. The plan went on for four years and it began in April of 1947. The United States was hoping to rebuild war-devastated regions, make Europe as strong as it was before the war, take down trade barriers, and prevent communism from…

a political one. In his plan, he mostly called for “economic assistance” and “psychological warfare” over military action (). Although this was open for interpretation. For example, Kennan’s successor, Paul Nitze, regarded the words “the adroit and vigilant application of counter-force” within the containment plan to mean military action (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/kennan). Such vague phrasing within the containment policy left much room for many interpretations and uses…

1950, McCarthy revealed for the first time his list of Communists within the government. He also asserted that U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson was aware of the growing threat of communist spies, but was doing nothing to repress it (Rheeves). This single speech launched what would come to be known as the Second Red Scare. He illustrated his charges in several books, one of which is titled America’s Retreat from Victory. In this work, he claims that “the free world has been losing 100 million…

'democratic empire'16 and it was obvious that the foreign policy of the Americans was bringing together the United States and the European West and East. This meant that they were slowing accumulating in harmony but Stalin saw it as an American attempt to spread Capitalism.17 In 1947 Marshall spoke at the University of Harvard to introduce a new economic policy to give more support in the form of equipment and credit to buy American goods, again to ultimately stop the spread of Communism.18 This…