After World War 2 a majority of Europe was completely destroyed. Militaristic nations had bombed bridges, roads, railways and most of the supplies all through Europe. Europe was in desperate need to rebuild. However, this was not an easy mission. The European government was in dept and had no money left because it has all been invested in resources for fighting the destructive war. Eventually, the United States had been free from the devastations of the war which caused the death of approximately 406,000 Americans. The economy of the United States was stable leaving them to be a prosperous nation because of economic expansion, otherwise known as the postwar economic boom. The United States was progressing with the aspire and momentum of becoming a leading power. As a result they wanted to assist their allies including Europe with the intention to recover from the war. In order to do so, the United States created the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was able to distribute aid and assets to countries around Europe with the aim of recovering from World War 2. Although many nations still fell into many conflicts which involved communism, overall the Marshall Plan fulfilled many of its goals such as economic stability. The impact of the Marshall Plan had a great effect on modern day society.
Taking place on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall addressed numerous individuals at Harvard University and built a proclamation on the destruction and economic conditions of Europe during post-World War 2. The speech introduced Europe’s path to financial revival for the next four years. The European Recovery Program (ERP), which is the legal title of what is also known as the Marshall Plan, sought to fulfill major objectives. F...
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... hold back any actions to be taken. Over the years of 1948 through 1952, a rapid phase of development in Europe was exposed. The European nation presented growing markets and productive trade due to the Marshall Plan’s deliberate management. The Plan focused on avoiding the spread of communism towards the west, re-altering the currency, promoting alliances and even strengthening the economy .Overall, the Plan was a victory, furthermore it achieved extensive acceptance from the United States. It concluded the danger and extension of communism plus it invigorated Europe’s financial system. The Marshall Plan was persuaded that Europe’s prosperity could lead them to reject towards accepting communism. Overtime, Europeans had not just fully recovered from World War 2, but nevertheless had remotely developed into a more thriving and prolific nation then ever.
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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...
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.
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
After the end of World War II, the United States went through many changes. Most of the changes were for the better, but some had an adverse effect on certain population centers. Many programs, agencies and policies were created to transform American society and government.
The World War II, also called The Second World War, began when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, and when the Germans and the Japanese finally surrendered in 1945, the War ended. The United States entered the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941. During World War II, the world was divided into two major forces: Axis and Allies. The United States, Britain, The Soviet Union and the French resistance were the Allies, while Germany, Italy, and Japan were the main powers that formed the Axis. Throughout this time, the United States was giving all kinds of support to the Allies, such as armies, weapons, money and other things. The economic development in the United States had become much stronger and more powerful during World War II, and United States learned how to handle economy better than any other countries since then. The president during World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has done a great deal of things, both good and bad, to resolve the problems of United States’ economy crisis during his time. The most important thing he has done to the economy was that he designed all kinds of programs to explain his three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. Because of the success of President Roosevelt’s three Rs, the American governments participated in economic affairs thoroughly, and has remained so up to this day.
The United States as a hegemonic power was challenged in the 1970s due to a number of changes occurring all over the world. The Western European market was emergin...
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
The European Recovery Program (ERP), also called the Marshall Plan was a plan for foreign aid announced by Georges Marshall (Secretary of State of the US, 1947-1949), in June 1947 at Harvard University to help rebuild Western Europe largely destroyed by World War II (Holm, 2017, p. xv). Under the presidency of Harry Truman, the recovery program was designed in 1947 and adopted by law in April 1948. Thereafter, US$13 billion financial support, food aid and technical assistance were provided to Western Europe between 1948 to 1951 for the reconstruction of its economies and polities (De Long & Eichengreen, 1991. pp. 2, 14). Despite this act of generosity, the Marshall Plan was regarded as a political weapon used by the US to establish
The American economic policy with Europe also contributed in a vast amount. The policy had intentions to protect and encourage American
After World War II America was well out of the depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended segregation in the armed forces, and this gave many different races great new benefits. At the end of the war, the United States became a world power. The policy that stated they would not get involved in other country affairs ended. America became a different country after the war, in a good way. The population of America increased after the war (History Ch...
...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.
Franklin Roosevelt’s “optimism and activism that helped restore the badly shaken confidence of the nation” (pg. 467 Out of Many), was addressed in the New Deal, developed to bring about reform to the American standard of living and its low economy. It did not only make an impact during the Great Depression. Although, many of the problems addressed in the New Deal might have been solved, those with the long lasting effect provide enough evidence to illustrate how great a success the role of the New Deal played out in America’s history to make it what it is today.
The second large step in containment was the Marshall Plan. Proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall, it would provide economic relief to rebuilding Western European nations such as Great Britain, France, Belgium and even...
Reid, T. R. The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. New York: Penguin, 2004. 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...