Rehabilitating a Continent

As it became clear that the Allies would soon achieve victory over Nazi Germany, the next major issue was of course how to rebuild a continent that had been ravaged by the most brutal war in human history, but also how to ensure that a war like this could never happen again.  It was largely agreed that, regardless of how brutal and bitter this conflict had been, the resolution and peace terms could not be like those of the Treaty of Versailles, which only served to place blame in an attempt to further punish and deprive an already defeated foe.  Instead, there would be a plan to rebuild the world that the war destroyed and to rehabilitate the bonds that were broken through such a savage conflict.  So the United States State Department, under Secretary George Marshall, created a plan that would both provide aid to the various nations that were in desperate need of recovery immediately following the conclusion of the Second World War, and would also antagonize the Soviet Union who emerged as a new foe to the Western Powers in the post-war years.  This Marshall Plan, though officially called the European Recovery Plan (ERP), would serve to physically rebuild Western Europe, but would also, and perhaps more importantly, serve to spread American ideals, practices, and standards as to more closely connect the West in the face of the newly formed Eastern Bloc.

Before we get into the more dubious implications of the United States’ creation of the Marshall Plan, its actual dimensions and format should be discussed.  The proposed aid would be given to the participating states roughly on a per capita basis, though natually, more aid would be directed towards the Allied nations and those with a larger industrial capacity, as it was viewed that their economic resurrection would serve as a catalyst for the surrounding, smaller nations.  The ERP was signed off on by President Truman in early April of 1948 and originally granted 5 billion dollars worth of aid to the 16 participating European states, though over the next four years, the United States would donate a total of $13 billion dollars in economic and technical assistance.  The European Recovery Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan in  1951, which gave 7 billion dollars of aid anually to the participating European nations until 1961, when it too was replaced by a new program.  The main purpose of the plan was not onl to physically rebuild the shattered infrastructures and economies of the European States, but also to reduce infra-continental trade barriers, and to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models.

Now comes the part regarding the more dubious implications of the Marshall Plan.  Surely we all know that as the Second World War was coming to  close, many American and British officials recognized that the Soviet Union would now be their new enemy, perhaps not on the battlefield, but on the world-stage nonetheless.  The Marshall Plan was also designed to increase American/capitalist influences in the participating European States so that they could create an effective political and economic bulwark against the communists that were now quickly consolidating their power in Eastern Europe.  By rebuilding a state through the American methods of capitalism, the Allies could essentially secure it from large scale communist influences.  Of course the benefits of the Marshall Plan were also offered to Eastern European States such as Poland and East Germany, but the Soviet Union forced them refuse the offer, knowing that participating would almost certainly let significant American/ Western-capitalist influences into Eastern Europe.  In response to this however, Secretary of State George Marshall stated publicly that he felt that Stalin and the Soviets had little interest in rebuilding Europe or in any way helping it to recover from the Second World War.

Largely, officials involved in the original European Recovery Plan and its successors felt that the programs were a huge success.  In fact, by 1952, as the original European Recovery Plan was coming to an end, the economies of participating states had already surpassed their prewar levels, and though this is partially due to the presence of a sever depression prior to the war, such recovery was nonetheless a major positive.  Such phenomenal economic growth however was due in no small part to the fact that these economies were essentially now starting from scratch and rebuilding from the very foundations.  Such a fresh, or rather empty, economic climate allows for a good bit of breathing room so to speak and also enables for rapid industrialization so long as their is abundant funding, which, thanks to the Marshall Plan, there was.

To conclude, it must be admitted that the Marshall Plan was in no small way a political tool to build a barrier between the rapidly advancing Soviet Union and the rest of Europe and therefore all concepts of western democracy and capitalism.  It was an effective way to spread American influence and though it did of course rebuild Western Europe and other European states, it also formed a degree of dependence for Western Europe, as they were now on the doorstep of the enemy and would forever require American aid and protection just to survive and prosper.  But all in all, the Marshall Plan was a success; it created stable and prosperous capitalist democracies that are still standing over half a century later, while Eastern Europe and those that were once under Soviet control are still struggling to find their economic footing after the Soviet Union’s fall.