Marshall Plan Article + Worksheet

Marshall Plan
From Don’t Know Much about History by Kenneth C. Davis, pps. 401-402)
“The truth of the matter is that Europe’s requirements for the next three or four years of foreign
food and other essential products – principally from America – are so much greater than her present
ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help, or face economic, social and political
deterioration of a very grave character. (1)
… Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances
arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the
U.S. should be apparent to all. It is logical that the U.S. should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the
return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no
assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty,
desperation, and chaos.” (2)
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George Marshall
Conceived by Undersecretary of State Will Clayton and first proposed by Secretary of State Dean
Acheson, the Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, pumped more than $ 12
billion into selected war-torn European countries during the next four years. (The countries participating
were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.) It provided the economic side
of Truman’s policy of containment by removing the economic dislocation that might have fostered
Communism in Western Europe. It also set up a Displaced Persons Plan under which some 300,000
Europeans, many of them Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, were granted American citizenship. By most
accounts, the Marshall Plan was the most successful undertaking of the U.S. in the postwar era and is
often cited as the most compelling argument in favor of foreign aid. (3)
To some contemporary critics on the left, the Marshall Plan was not simply pure American
altruism – the goodhearted generosity of America’s best intentions. To them, it was an extension of a
capitalist plan for American economic domination, a calculated Cold War ploy to rebuild European
capitalism. Or, to put it simply, if there was no Europe to sell to, who would buy all those products the
American industrial machine was turning out? (4)
By any measure, the Marshall Plan must be considered an enormously successful undertaking
that helped return a devastated Europe to health, allowing free market democracies to flourish while
Eastern Europe, hunkered down under repressive Soviet controlled regimes, stagnated socially and
economically. (5)
ANSWER QUESTIONS ON A PIECE OF LOOSE-LEAF
PAPER!
(Write Out Questions)
1. In what three ways does George Marshall say Europe will suffer if the U.S. does not give aid to
them? (1) CS
2. In paragraph two, Marshall states “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but
against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.” What country is he being careful not to “rub
the wrong way” with this statement?
3. Describe the “Displaced Persons Plan” discussed in paragraph 3. CS
4. Overall, is the Marshall Plan generally seen as a positive in American history? Be specific. CS