Been doing some research on this topic we touched on in another thread.
The Marshall Plan...
Seems there was great concern about the U.S slipping back into depression after the big war.
Benefits for the U.S. Economy
Because Americans feared that after World War II the financial troubles and unemployment of the 1930s could recur, increasing prosperity in the U.S. was one goal of the Marshall Plan. As a way of boosting exports, the plan had wide appeal to American business people, bankers, workers, and farmers.
Soon after passage of the Foreign Assistance Act, Kiplinger Magazine, a publication for business people, printed a guide to show them how to benefit from the plan. "The Marshall Plan is very much a business
plan. . . ," it concluded. "At its root is an office and factory and warehouse job. The Marshall Plan means work, and you will be one of the workers." During the years of the Marshall Plan, when much of the money European participants received was spent on U.S.-produced food and manufactured goods, the American economy flourished.
It would seem one hand giveth and the other taketh....
Marshall Announces His Plan
The speech George C. Marshall delivered was drafted by Charles E. Bohlen, a State Department official and future ambassador to the Kremlin. As its basis, he used a memo prepared by a State Department Policy Planning staff directed by Soviet-expert George Kennan as well as reports by other State Department officials. Marshall then prepared the final version.
In the speech Marshall outlined the problem: "Europe's requirements 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." He then suggested a solution: that the European nations themselves set up a program for the reconstruction of Europe, with United States assistance. The significance of Marshall's plan was immediately recognized. On June 13, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (1891-1951) predicted that his address "will rank as one of the greatest speeches in world history."
just for interest content:
Truman Signs the Economic Assistance Act
Surrounded by members of Congress and his cabinet, on April 3, 1948, President Harry S Truman (1884-1972) signed the Foreign Assistance Act, the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan. His official statement said, "Few presidents have had the opportunity to sign legislation of such importance. . . . This measure is America's answer to the challenge facing the free world today."
The Marshall Plan was a bipartisan effort--proposed by a Democratic president and enacted into law by a Republican Congress in a hotly contested presidential election year.
This link says it was costing American and British taxpayers 600,000,000 a year for Germany alone!!
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistl...ntdate=1947-03-24&studycollectionid=mp&nav=OK
Total cost thru Congress appropriations 13.3 BILLION Thats HUGE
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/marshall/mars0.html
The Marshall Plan...
Seems there was great concern about the U.S slipping back into depression after the big war.
Benefits for the U.S. Economy
Because Americans feared that after World War II the financial troubles and unemployment of the 1930s could recur, increasing prosperity in the U.S. was one goal of the Marshall Plan. As a way of boosting exports, the plan had wide appeal to American business people, bankers, workers, and farmers.
Soon after passage of the Foreign Assistance Act, Kiplinger Magazine, a publication for business people, printed a guide to show them how to benefit from the plan. "The Marshall Plan is very much a business
plan. . . ," it concluded. "At its root is an office and factory and warehouse job. The Marshall Plan means work, and you will be one of the workers." During the years of the Marshall Plan, when much of the money European participants received was spent on U.S.-produced food and manufactured goods, the American economy flourished.
It would seem one hand giveth and the other taketh....
Marshall Announces His Plan
The speech George C. Marshall delivered was drafted by Charles E. Bohlen, a State Department official and future ambassador to the Kremlin. As its basis, he used a memo prepared by a State Department Policy Planning staff directed by Soviet-expert George Kennan as well as reports by other State Department officials. Marshall then prepared the final version.
In the speech Marshall outlined the problem: "Europe's requirements 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." He then suggested a solution: that the European nations themselves set up a program for the reconstruction of Europe, with United States assistance. The significance of Marshall's plan was immediately recognized. On June 13, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (1891-1951) predicted that his address "will rank as one of the greatest speeches in world history."
just for interest content:
Truman Signs the Economic Assistance Act
Surrounded by members of Congress and his cabinet, on April 3, 1948, President Harry S Truman (1884-1972) signed the Foreign Assistance Act, the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan. His official statement said, "Few presidents have had the opportunity to sign legislation of such importance. . . . This measure is America's answer to the challenge facing the free world today."
The Marshall Plan was a bipartisan effort--proposed by a Democratic president and enacted into law by a Republican Congress in a hotly contested presidential election year.
This link says it was costing American and British taxpayers 600,000,000 a year for Germany alone!!
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistl...ntdate=1947-03-24&studycollectionid=mp&nav=OK
Total cost thru Congress appropriations 13.3 BILLION Thats HUGE
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/marshall/mars0.html
