The Marshall plan and its success in Eastern Europe

An internally shocked and physically destroyed Europe was the one left after the Second
World War, which own scarce resources were used vainly towards recovery. But in 1947, a
silver lining appeared upon despair when George C. Marshall addressed in his at Harvard
University, June 5th;” The remedy lies in breaking the vicious circle and restoring the
confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of
Europe as a whole.”
Originally called “The European Recovery Program”, The Marshall Plan was a U.S.´s
sponsored program created to provide financial aid to Europe, altogether with food, fuel and
machinery, in order to outset the rehabilitation of the continent. But not all European
Countries would receive this help, as the East was under military sovereignty by the Soviet
Union and it refused to agree to any of the policies that Marshall offered. Lamenting the
rejections, he told Stalin that the United States hoped to aid: “those countries that are
suffering from economic deterioration which, if unchecked, might lead to economic collapse
and the consequent elimination of any chance of democratic survival”.
The first countries to receive money were Greece and Turkey, since they were the weakest,
and for that reason, most threatened to fall under communism webs. The second one was the
United Kingdom due to the fact that they were additionally going through a great economic
crisis of their own. Finally, the 13-billion-dollar worth economic aid was distributed in a time
lapse of four years among 16 Western European countries, rising them up to recovery.
Not only industries such as steel, chemical and engineering showed a major evolution, but the
ties between Western Europe and The United States were never tighter, which for Europe
meant a promising future of free trade market, political stability and military security. A more
concrete evidence of the program´s success is the fact that the gross national product of the
countries involved grew as much as 25%.
In retrospective, the idea that a democratic and capitalist plan would save Europe worked in
such an empowering way that it was the first step towards integration. The Marshal plan
brought “a powerful new impetus to the campaign for European unity. In fact, it can be said
that the American policy of economic aid, coupled with the pressure of the Communist
danger, created conditions in which, for the first time, the unification of Europe became a
practical possibility
Quote 1
George G. Marshall, speech at Harvard University, 5 June 1947
Quote 2
Marshall to Stalin during negotiation meeting, 15 April 1947
Quote 3
Council of Europe, 1949
Back up texts:
-NEW EVIDENCE ON THE SOVIET REJECTION OF THE MARSHALL PLAN reports,
1947,S.D.Parrish & M.M. Narinsky
- The Marshall Plan in the European struggle, Adolf Agugustus Berle
- The Britain Crisis of 1947, The Marshall Plan and Argentina. P. R. Skupch.