Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan

What is the Marshall Plan?

The Marshall Plan was an American attempt to save Europe from total destruction after most of Europe was struggling to rebound from World War II. It was also seen as an overt plan to stop Russian, communist, influence from infiltrating all of Europe.

How did the Marshall Plan gain so much support AND opposition? 

On June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall spoke at Harvard University and outlined what would become known as the Marshall Plan. At this time Europe had just survived one of the worst winters on record. The nations of Europe had nothing to sell for hard currency, and the democratic socialist governments in most countries were unwilling to adopt the draconian proposals for recovery advocated by old-line classical economists. Something had to be done, both for humanitarian reasons and also to stop the potential spread of communism westward.  

The United States was not the only nation with influence to recognize the vulnerability of this region.  Russia also saw a chance to stake their claim on this unstable region. The United States became suspicious of Russian motives when its influence was extended into Eastern Europe. Eventually, Truman and his current US government created The Marshall Plan, which aimed to aid European countries, help them to rebuild their states while gaining their allegiance away from communism. This unstable region, with partial ties to the U.S. and partial ties to Russia, caused the Cold War to develop in Europe.

The United States offered up to $20 billion for relief, but only if the European nations could get together and draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid. Many argue that only those countries which were prepared to line up with the US against the Soviet Union would receive aid. More pointedly it is argued that Marshall Aid was used systematically to pressure governments and voters in countries like Britain, France and Italy into rejecting Communism in exchange for Aid, while Keynesian economic policies were used to provide welfare and jobs for workers.  In other words, Russia and their allies construed this action as a direct attack against them.  

This incongruence between Russia and the U.S. did help the Plan gain support in the United States. Marshall insisted that the plan would reduce the expansion of Soviet influence. The continual spread of the Soviet’s power helped sway Congress to approving aid. This was amplified when communists pledged to destroy world capitalism in October 1947. The bill passed and $5.3 billion was to be sent to Europe during the first 12 months.

As a result of this division between the European countries feeling pressure from Russia and the countries feeling pressure from the U.S., there was magnified division between Russia and the West. Most of the countries that accepted aid were in the western part of Europe as the eastern countries had been taken over by Russia and had withdrawn from the plan under Soviet pressure. As Churchill put it, an “Iron Curtain” had descended upon Eastern Europe.

Why did Russia Opt Out?

After the preceding description of the enactment and reaction to the Marshall Plan it is basically redundant to state specifically why Russia would rather have flushed all of the money the United States had ever encountered down the toilet rather than being a part of their "generosity"; however, I will state more explicitly just exactly what the Russian's felt about the U.S.'s kindness.

Russia saw this maneuver by the Americans as aggressive. They saw it as a move to impose American influence over countries receiving Marshall aid.  The Russians suspicious view that America just want to tear the people’s democracies away from the Russian sphere of influence, to win them over, to infiltrate them and to pull them from the Soviet Union, caused much added strife between the two empires. This led to the start of the Cold War in which Russia and the United States began building up economic, military and political force.

The U.S. did have enormous self-interest in the success of the Marshall Plan. America had a vital stake in the recovery of Western Europe.  The self-benefit was more friends in Europe who were democratic, capitalist and against the spread of communism.  These new “bought” friends helped the U.S. in accomplishing the end of the Cold War by giving the U.S. stronger alliances than the Soviet Union due to economic ties in the revival of Europe.

                                                                                                       Kristin Jackson