The Marshall Plan

By raising the standard of living in these nations, citizens did not look elsewhere to relieve their economic struggles (Hogan). Following the fall of Czechoslovakia to communism in 1948, no other European Nation fell to communism (Constitutional). There is propaganda from this time period, such as the propaganda located in the appendix, that suggests the Marshall Plan did achieve success in stopping communism from spreading into Western European economies (Clare). One German Politian praised the Marshall saying, "The Marshall Plan contributed directly to Europe’s economic recovery, to restoring morale, and to the containment of communism” (Wallace).

Word Count: 558

Section C: Evaluation of Sources

Machado, Barry. In Search of a Usable Past: The Marshall Plan and Postwar Reconstruction Today.

Published in 2007 by Barry Machado, the book In Search of a Usable Past: The Marshall and Postwar Reconstruction Today documents a study designed to “establish the relevance for contemporary postwar reconstruction programs of an experimental foreign policy conceived and executed back in the late 1940s and early 1950s.” Machado professionally documents that study and analyzes the study to consider is a policy like the Marshall Plan could succeed in modern politics. Machado received his Ph.D. in education from Northwestern in 1957 indicating accuracy in this work. The book was published 60 years after the Marshall Plan was initiated, so the facts used in this work are accurate.

This book has great value for this investigation as it contains information pertaining to each part of the plan of investigation. The book considers what the purpose of the Marshall Plan was, and contains one chapter specifically designed to analyze the success of t...

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...of Western Europe. Based on the evidence presented in this investigation, the Marshall Plan did successfully achieve this purpose. The second purpose of the Marshall Plan was to prevent the spread of communism into Western European countries. Despite the fact that no country fell to communism following the implementation of the Marshall Plan, this investigation does not contain sufficient evidence to support that the plan was responsible for the prevention of the spread of communism into Western European countries. Both purposes of the Marshall Plan were achieved, but it is unclear to what extent the Marshall Plan achieved its second purpose, preventing the spread of communism, due to the lack of evidence that suggests the Marshall Plan was responsible for the prevention. Overall, the Marshall Plan was an enormous success for the United States.

Word Count: 148