The Marshall Plan

In a now-celebrated speech delivered at the Harvard University commencement on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Catlett Marshall proposed a solution to the wide-spread hunger, unemployment, and housing shortages that faced Europeans in the aftermath of World War II. The Marshall Plan, as it came to be known, was not just an American program. It was a joint European-American venture, one in which American resources were complemented with local resources, one in which the participants worked cooperatively toward the common goals of freedom and prosperity.

By the time the Marshall Plan ended in 1952 – five years after Marshall’s speech – the United States had invested $13.3 billion, and the years 1948 to 1952 had recorded the fastest economic growth in European history. Industrial production and agriculture exceeded pre-World War II levels. Historians disagree on how large a role Marshall Plan funds played in European recovery. But most believe the Marshall Plan offered an important boost of morale at a critical moment. With Marshall’s plan, the United States committed itself to helping Europe rebuild itself.

U.S. President Harry S Truman (seated) signs legislation authorizing the first segment of Marshall Plan aid for the reconstruction of war-torn countries of Western Europe in April 1948. “I believe that, in years to come, we shall look back upon this undertaking as the dividing line between the old era of world affairs and the new—the dividing line between the old era of national suspicion, economic hostility, and isolationism, and the new era of mutual cooperation to increase the prosperity of people throughout the world.” Harry S Truman President of the United States, 1945-1953		(Courtesy of the George C. Marshall Research Library Lexington, Virginia)

(Courtesy of the George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, VA)		Left: A British car, manufactured with ECA-supplied copper for wiring, nickel for steel, and zinc for die-casting, is loaded for export at a London dock. Below: A family in England receives a CARE package from the United States. (Library of Congress)

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