The Marshall Plan was proposed by Secretary of State-- George C. Marshall at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. Marshall mentioned the terrible condition of Europe at the beginning of the speech, and he convinced that US should set up an aid program for Europe to recover their economy. The Marshall Plan was a 4-year aid program which the United States had to give over $12 billion to the countries in Western Europe to help them rebuild their economy since most part of Europe was devastated by World War 2. $12 billion was not a small amount of aid which was a huge cost for the United States. Why would the Marshall Plan still be approved and what was its benefit for the United States? First, for politic, the Marshall Plan can be a political …show more content…
Since most of the productivity of Western Europe countries were destroyed, even they received the aid, they had to buy several equipment like machines from the US as they didn’t have the ability to produce them immediately. Also, there were food shortages in Europe at that time, those countries had to buy food and supplies from the US. Therefore, the aid would eventually go back to the United States and improve the economy like boosting production and increase profits of the United States. The Marshall Plan was more like a loan than a pure giveaway of aid. Then, the Marshall Plan can make Western Europe became more rely on the United States and even make the United States a stronger country. Once they rely on the United States, the US can control the economics of Europe so that the US can take over the leadership of global economics. Also, the Marshall Plan greatly helped Western Europe to recover their economics. “By 1951, six years after the war and at the effective end of the Marshall Plan, national incomes per capita were more than 10 percent above pre-war levels.” (De Long and Eichengreen 22) which was much faster than the recovery of GDP after World War 1. Therefore, the Marshall Plan could help both the Western Europe and the United State and it can be the tool which make the United States be the emerging leader of global …show more content…
De Long and Eichengreen thought that “the Marshall Plan should thus be thought of as a large and highly successful structural adjustment program.” (De Long and Eichengreen 5). It was because the post-World War 2 reconstruction of Western Europe was much faster than the previous World War and compared to Eastern Europe. Charles Kindleberger said that Postwar Europe was a “supergrowth” since the Marshall Plan created a dynamic economic growth which much stronger than the growth of Europe previously. Also, the Marshall Plan boosted European Integration since it was considered as necessary to maintain the peace and growth. The Marshall Plan was used as a guideline to form integration, thought it was failed, however the thought of European Integration eventually grow as the form of European
Stephen Ambrose speaks much on wars that America was directly or indirectly involved in. In one chapter, The Legacy of World War Two, he saw war, for the US and the Allies, in World War Two, as “not to conquer, not to enslave, not to destroy, but to liberate” (Ambrose 120) He goes on to say that “the Marshall Plan was the most generous act in human history.” (Ambrose 121) The Marshall Plan created NATO, the Berlin Air Lift and Ambrose swimming in patriotism claimed it was “the American spirit, more than American productive power, that made it so.” (Ambrose 121) He continues h...
and other countries.People may argue that the foreign policies made at this time were ineffective. The Marshall Plan spent a lot of the U.S. money to rebuild and help countries in Western Europe recover from the war. Americans may not have appreciated the fact that the U.S. government decided to give other countries money when it could have been used for something more important in the U.S. The Truman Doctrine let the U.S. be in a close distance to the Soviet union and their buffer contraries, therefore provoking them and creating more unneeded tension. The idea of communism needed to be stopped but these policies may not have been the correct approach. The U.S. should have been constantly trying to negotiate with them even if they did not want to. Besides the fear of communism, people may argue that the domestic affairs were overall very good in the U.S. The economy was striving and many people had enough money to buy houses, foods, supplies, cars, and other discretionary items. The women that took over men’s jobs during the war made good money and had a lot of savings. Therefore, when the war was over they were able to help support their returning partners or family members. From the late 1940s to the early 1950s, millions of children were born, known as the Baby Boom. Also, the G.I. Bill was passed to help anyone who fought in the war, worked in factories that made supplies for the war, and anyone who did anything to help the war effort start their new life. The G.I. Bill did not include women, African Americans or Jewish people only white men. The government paid for these people to go to college, get higher paying jobs, and even get new
On October 29, 1929 marks the official opening of the Great Depression. During 1933, the unemployment rate in United State reached 25%; it was not until the second quarter of 1933 where the US economy started to reclaim. President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the foundation of the New Deal within the First Hundred Days when he came into power. To determine the New Deal Program’s role during the Great Depression, the sources used in this investigation include: The Great Depression and the New Deal by Robert F. Himmelberg, and Depression Decade: From New Era through New Deal, 1929-1941 by Broadus Mitchell. There will also be a discussion involving World War II’s role in ending the economic crisis. A journal article “The Reality of the Wartime Economy” by Horwitz, Steven and McPhillips, Michael J. will help disperse the theories behind Second World War.
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States were principle players involved with reshaping post-war Europe. The region most affected policy changes was Eastern Europe, which includes those states that would eventually fall behind the Iron Curtain. While the camaraderie between the Big Three deteriorated, Soviet-backed communism was spreading across Eastern Europe. The argument during this time was that expansionism was inevitable since Stalin had already decided to establish Soviet power and Soviet-typed systems in the lands his army occupied; resistance was pointless. While nothing in history is inevitable, to a great extent, expansionism was highly probable, especially due to Eastern European political traditions, its political structure after World War II and the West's inactivity in the region which left the area more susceptible to Soviet-backed communism. As George Schopflin states, "Stalin, however ruthless and powerful he may have been, was not possessed of superhuman abilities" (58).
Angelina Jolie said, “Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to windows, without it, there is no way of life.” On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a small city whose death toll rises to 90,000-166,000. On August 9th, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, 60,000–80,000 . In total, 15 million people lost their lives during the duration of the Second World War. In John Hersey's book, Hiroshima, he provides a detailed account of six people and how the bombing of Hiroshima affected their lives. John Heresy felt it was important to focus his story on six individuals to create a remembrance that war affects more than just nations and countries, but actual human beings. Moreover, the book details the effect the bomb had on the city of Hiroshima. “Houses all around were burning, and the wind was now blowing hard.” (Hersey, 27). Before the bomb, there existed few laws to govern the use of a weapon of this magnitude because of the complexity and modern technology that the bomb used. To address the fears of the use of the atomic bomb, new laws were created to govern its use. The atom bomb should have been dropped on Japan in order to prevent the further use of such a destructive force.
The Marshall Plan was the United States sponsored program designed to rehabilitate the countries of Europe that suffered the incredibly damaging consequences after World War II. Western Europe’s real attitude toward economic union came about when they avoided discussion of a European free trade area, offered to them as an alternative in the Marshall Plan (Rebuilding Europe After World War II). When communist forces took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, the United States Congress realized the seriousness of the Soviet threat to European democracy. They voted for full funding of the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan). The USSR rejected contributions from the Marshall Plan, due to the conditions that accompanied it, such as allowing United States supervision of the participant's economy, and to be part of a unified European economy based on free trade (European-United States History). Under t...
George C. Marshall of appointed by Truman as the Secretary of State who did a commencement speech at Harvard University for restoring Europe. After the end of war, much of the European’s continent still lay in ruins. European received shipments of food, staples, fuel and machinery. There were about sixteen countries that helped aid Western Europe and they were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and western Germany. The Soviet Union did not trust the United States because they feared it was an attempt to weaken Soviet interest and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries creating their own Molotov plan. The goal was to help them get back on their feet after the devastation of the war. This was a good deed foreign policy. The plan helped so much that the national gross product grew as much as 25 percent. It put Western Europe back onto its feet. The plan funding ended in
...iralization of germany the marshall plan was very successful western europe passed production levels they had before ww2.Stalin however didn’t approve of the marshall plan and IMF. Later stalin built something like a buffer for invading countries and capitalism and this so called iron curtain divided communist + capitalist countrys east and western europe .
Even though the political and public opinion opposed to this due to the debt that the United States faced after World War I. Countries did not pay their debts owed to the United States, pressured President Roosevelt presented the lend-lease program to congress anyways. Approved this lend-lease helped the American economy by creating jobs and building up industries after collapsing during the Great depression. The United States not only received cash for the products, but when Britain and France became “broke”, President Roosevelt found other ways to obtain the equal value for the products. Ammunition, tanks, airplanes and trucks were among the materials and products that the United States provided to allies during the lend-lease program. This program initiated intended for European allies, but then extended to China and the Soviet Union. By the end of war 40 nations had received help from the Lend-Lease Act. The program helped the United States prepare for war by producing massive amounts of essential materials during that time. By the end of the war America had become the arsenal of all its allies and had obtained a great economic benefit from
...thin the Marshall Plan, all four foreign policies are addressed with special concentration on manifest destiny in order that we might assist European governments. Upon the rebuilding of Europe, the U.S. was once again able to expand its economic markets.
It is an attempt to solve the reparation issue of Germany after the World War I. The new German government stopped the resistance and tended to approach a new way to settle the reparations question under the Treaty of Versailles. Spielvogel noted that the Dawes Plans established by international commission “reduced reparations and stabilized Germany’ s payments on the basis of its ability to pay” (799). In order to reduce its burden and promote its recovery, this plan also provided a two hundred million dollars loan for Germany. It should be studied today because this plan allows the Germany to pay for the reparations. The loans offered by the United States starting the heavy American investment in the Europe, which brought about the flourish of Europe in the 1920s.
World War I came to an end in November of 1918, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. This treaty ended the fighting and of many other results, it put the blame on Germany for the war. This resulted in Germany having to pay major reparation fee’s and put Germany in a financial hole. The treaty took away parts of Germany’s land and made it impossible for them to use their natural resources to profit from. The amount that Germany had to pay back was more then they could, and this started a chain reaction for the transfer of money. In 1924, The Dawes Plan was signed into action and the U.S. became a creditor nation. Germany owed around 32 billion in war reparations. They were unable to pay this, so the U.S. loaned Germany money, with that Germany paid European countries War Reparations, and with the reparation money they received, U.S exports were able to be bought. This benefited the U.S. because the loans would have to be paid back with interest, and it let the economy experience a boost because goods were able to be exported. The Dawes Plan boosted the American economy, while facilitating other European countries’ attempts to reestablish a stable financial state after World War One. This time period in the 1920’s is referred to as the ‘roaring twen...
Economic agreements and programs changed the economic environment greatly following WW2, and helped set the stage for the impending Golden Age. The Marshall plan helped stabilise the European economic environment and enable the free market, which was key to the Golden Age . GATT and Bretton Woods were both pan-European agreements that helped protect and promote the free market in Europe by protecting against tariffs and competitive deflation . While these institutions provided for new free trade opportunities, and institution reform, across many European countries, it affected Britain less, as these measures largely helped other European countries mirror the British financial system .
...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.
The devastation of Europe financially and physically led the United States that had resources to drive the recovery of the world economy. At this moment some allied officials came up with a broad set of arrangements which would guide the operation of world economy from the end of World War II. This broad set came to be known as the “Bretton Woods System” coined from the name of town where it was created. The system was based on liberal economic principles which intended to promote a reopening of commercial and financial channels. The System mainly focused on economic recovery of world so that once recovery takes place the responsibility could be shared more equally. But the initial burden was on United States and as it pushed slowly towards more opening trading system and supported most financial