This map shows the countries that received Marshall Plan funds and the amount received
At the end of World War 2, the great powers were tasked with the reconstruction of the shambles that had become Europe. To fight the crippling damage to the infrastructure and populace of Western Europe, these nations adopted the Marshall Plan, an aid package sponsored by the United States that would eventually give over 13 billion dollars to help support the economies of Western European nations. While the plan was sold as an effort to revive these economies, in reality the Marshall Plan was a tool to promote American consumerism and ideals across Western Europe, and to create a bubble of capitalism to stand against the growing communist threat of the USSR.
As the nations of Europe began to put themselves back together, the growing fight between capitalist open markets of the West and the planned economies of the East became more and more apparent. The supporters of the Marshall Plan worked to promote the joy and freedom of open markets as much as possible, which Victoria de Grazia discusses in her book Irresistible Empire. She writes “The most fundamental move was to contrast the consumer freedoms and affluence of the Atlantic Community with the closed economies and low standards of living of collectivist societies…If there was no consumer choice, there could be no human development, however big the leaps in gross national product” (de Grazia, 352). Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, the economies of Western Europe embraced these freedoms and flourished. The architects of the Marshall Plan envisioned that Western Europe could adapt and follow the model of the American economy, and they proved to be correct.
Although there Marshall Plan was generally accepted, some individuals had other ideas with regards to postwar reconstruction. In his work “Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy”, French philosopher Alexandre Kojeve presents a thorough idea for how he believes the French government should proceed with reconstruction following World War 2. Kojeve explains that due to risks of France being dwarfed economically and militarily by it’s neighbors, France should seek drastic solutions to assure it’s safety going into the postwar era. His idea is for France, Italy, and Spain to form a Latin Empire to guarantee the mutual survival of all the countries. Kojeve explains, “The Latin kinship, founded on the unity of substance and of birth, is already a potential Empire which remains only to be actualized under the concrete historical conditions of our time, which are, moreover, auspicious for imperial formations” (Kojeve 16). Kojeve presents a unique idea for postwar France as a member of a new Catholic empire that would maintain neutrality in the coming war between the USSR and the U.S.
The reconstruction of postwar Europe was a monumental task that involved massive amounts of labor, physical and political. The rehabilitation of the Western European economies was important not only for the infrastructure of Europe, but also for the spread of consumerism that was being broadcast from the U.S. The conflict created by the introduction of the free market economy and the Soviet opposition to it would serve as an additional tension in the growing cold war between the USSR and the U.S.
I agree whole heartedly with your thesis, “while the plan was sold as an effort to revive these economies, in reality the Marshall Plan was a tool to promote American consumerism and ideals across Western Europe, and to create a bubble of capitalism to stand against the growing communist threat of the USSR”. However, I believe that you could have gone deeper in your discussion of the preparation for conflict with the USSR. For example, you could have discussed the concepts of containment.
While the US tried and was successful in creating markets for their goods in Western Europe, was the same attempt made in Eastern Europe. Although there was the Soviet Bloc forming, was their any conscious effort by the Western Powers to branch their markets into the East?
You hit the nail right on the head in your post. The spread of Western influence in Europe was exactly what was happening in Eastern Europe with the USSR. It was kind of a action-reaction relationship between the US and the USSR. Do you think Europe would have fallen to communism had the US not gotten involved in the rebuilding of Western Europe?
Your point about the Marshall plan being a tool to promote American consumerism is interesting and i think really accurate. Do you think the US planned for this to happen quicker in Europe because it took some time for the European states to relax their welfare systems enough to entice American companies. Do you believe that the Marshall Plan was meant to take so long to bring American consumerism to Europe?
An interesting thought, “Kojeve presents a unique idea for postwar France as a member of a new Catholic empire that would maintain neutrality in the coming war between the USSR and the U.S.” I wonder if this coalition of nations was simply to bind themselves together so to avoid joining either side. Also interesting because I wonder if they thought war between the East and the West wasn’t a matter of if but rather of when. Even if these nations did bind themselves together, I feel it would dissolve through offers or threats from greater powers potentially.
I really took interest to your view of the marshal plan. Do you think that America did it only for selfish reasons? I think that you make a good point when talking about the marshal plan but I would have to say that there are other motivates behind it than just consumerism.