What was the significance of the Marshall Plan on Post-war Europe?
*FOURTH DRAFT*
September 2, 1945, marked the end of the Second World War, a day in which soldiers could finally leave foreign shores for home, but they would soon discover that home was not how they left it. For World War II had taken its toll on Europe. On both sides all that had been built before now lay in ruin and desolation, with economic disaster and extreme poverty now left to govern its inhabitants. Industrial production was critically low, a staggering amount of people were left either unemployed or homeless and most major cities, industrial facilities and transportation systems had been critically destroyed, leaving Europe’s infrastructure in a state of disarray. None of these problems could be easily remedied however as most countries had now all but exhausted their financial capabilities during the war.
But while Europe lay in ruin things were quite different on the other side of the Atlantic. Having been left relatively untroubled from its experience of WWII, the United States now found itself in an extremely favourable position while the traditionally powerful Europe faltered. However things were not as rosy as they initially appeared; with its new found fear of Communism America worried that a weakened Europe may prove to be the perfect breeding ground for Communist ideals. And with good reason, Communist parties, encouraged by the poverty and desperation of most European citizens, had become a significant presence in the governments of Italy and France by 1947. So on June 5, 1947, during his Harvard commencement speech, the US Secretary General, George Marshall made public the United States government’s decision to assist in the economic and politi...
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...nda behind the images onscreen, these included but were not limited to themes of productivity, multilateral trade and labour unions. For the planners of the Marshal Plan these ideas no doubt stood paramount in the effort to recover the European economy and create a self-sustaining Europe. And for the Europeans viewing these films, they didn’t just see the modernizing techniques, building projects, and examples of the Marshall Plan at work, they also envisioned an American lifestyle for them and their families after the atrocities of the Second World War. These films accentuated the positive qualities of American ideals, presenting them as something to aspire to; not only in business, but in everyday life. By stressing consumption over conservatism and massive production over craftsmanship, the films informed European viewers of the future that America saw for them.
This was definitely a tough predicament for Europe to be in. In the aftermath of World War I, literally tens of millions were mortally wounded and missing, there were devastating effects on morale and view towards war, which would make most any weakened society ...
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
The overall appeal of the cinema to the masses was particularly evident during the interwar era. Audiences worldwide wanted to watch the variety of films, particularly American produced films, and they always went back. The visibly attractive and glamorous Hollywood movies often depicted the success of the underdog over unjust authority. Values of cash over culture were often a theme in the early American films and societies with restricted social mobility, such as those in Europe, could dream of such a triumph. The working class and unemployed could fantasise about wealth, fame and freedom which America as a country was portrayed as offering.
One of the biggest fears of the American people is that the concept of communism contrasts drastically from the concept of capitalism, which the United States was essentially founded upon. The United States, as the public believed, was not a land of perfect communal equality, but rather a land of equal opportunity. However, what made communism so dangerous can be succinctly described by Eisenhower who compared the spread of communism as the domino effect. As his secretary of state, Dulles, put it, the propagation of communism “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and independence” of America (Doc B). In addition, the Cold War also planted the seeds of rational fear of a global nuclear war. As Russia caught up to the United States in terms of technological advancements, they successfully developed the atomic bomb as well as the hydrogen bomb, which caused Americans to believe that the USSR would use these weapons of mass destruction to forcefully extend their ideologies to the USA. In fact, Americans were so frantic about a potential nuclear disaster that it...
During 1940-1970, the USSR and the USA were the world’s leading superpowers. After WW2, it was the US money that helped rebuild nearly all of Western Europe, putting nearly half a dozen countries into debt. They opened trade and helped Europe’s ravaged economy to get back onto its feet. They did so by creating the ‘Marshall Plan’ on June the 5th, 1947. The plans aim was to reconstruct Western Europe and at the same time to stop Communism spreading to them – the Americans were avid believers in the Domino Theory, and believed that communism would take over all of Europe if they did not intervene. They also created other policies such as the Truman doctrine on March the 12th, 1947 (which is a set of principles that state that the US as the worlds ‘leading country’ will help out other democratic governments worldwide) and NATO, 4th of April 1949.
From 1939 to 1945 the majority of the world’s nations were part of a long deadly six-year war, World War II. These included two strong powerhouses, Great Britain and The United States. Millions died world wide, declaring World War II to be the most expansive war to date. The Holocaust, and the use nuclear weapons resulted in such a high death toll. Nations were in a state of “total war,” involving not just the military but also the entire nation. Civilians were aggressively aiding in supporting their military, creating a home front, making a significant impression on the result of the war. Rationing, defense and manpower were concerns for governments; and they made any economic and industrial change to support their efforts in aiding their nation and military.
...r than an opinion, to determine the difficulty of winning the prize. The author is a credible writer, because he is a historian specializing in World War One’s impact on Europe during the 20th century, and he is also from Yale University. The author has no personal gain with this article, because it is purely informational.
From after World War II and up until 1991 the foreign policy of the United States was based on Cold War ideology and the policy of containment; to prevent nations from leaning towards Soviet Union-based communism, as first laid out by George Kennan and later used as one of the key principles in the Truman Doctrine (LeCain). As this essay will argue, because of this policy the United States made a commitment to fight communism everywhere in the world and got them involved in conflicts more because of self interest, self protection and determination to beat communism than the cause itself.
Notwithstanding antipathies among OEEC members, sporadic political bickering and selfishness were subjugated by the cooperation. The Marshall Plan facilitated political stability, and eased social unrest that Truman said was potential vacuum for the USSR and the communist ideology. Mee (1984, p. 90) acknowledged that, “the real value of the plan was its psychological and political by-products”. The aid also strengthened democratic values and activities in Europe, preventing thus the USSR’s expansion. In this regard, Shultz (1987, p.114) asserted that, the Marshall Plan had primarily "created a sense of indebtedness and a reservoir of goodwill among Europeans towards America" on which was laid the groundwork of a political and military
With the rise of the Axis Powers came the outbreak of World War 2 and a potent evil that threatened the wellbeing and tranquility of the people in Asia, Europe, and Northern-Africa. One by one, countries fell into the grasp of the Axis Powers. With each fallen country, it became easier for the Axis P...
This essay will focus on the Reagan Administration which spanned from January 1981 to January 1989. When Reagan became President, he had only one well-defined foreign policy goal: containing the Soviet Union, or the “evil empire” as he once referred to it. He primarily wanted to stop the USSR from growing larger and to keep other non-Communist countries from becoming Communist. In the past, American presidents had used a theory called the “Domino Theory” to justify the need for intervention around the world. The theory speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. Prior to the Reagan Administration, the United States had already made several attempts to fight the spread of C...
Therefore, after US military intervention, came the Marshall Plan that aided war-torn Europe with money in order to defeat American fears of it turning to Communism. The alliances were necessary for the improvement of the American vision for the future, in acting as political (democracy) and trade partners. Similar was the Truman Doctrine, an example of America modifying the political alignment of the world which was Europe, to make state of affairs helpful for itself to flourish, this is seen as the formation of Americas political
During the years between World War I and World War II, Eastern Europe looked to the West for a suc...
Smith, Tony. The End of the European Empire: Decolonization after World War II. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1975. Print.
"The advent of a new world configuration, with a circumscribed place for Europe, found dramatic expression in the rapid disintegration of the European colonial empires after World War II." 1 The war itself had been a major catalyst for independence movements all throughout the world. Colonial reconquest wasn't the only thing that marked the end of the war. The atomic bomb and the victory of the United States were both sign...