The Marshall Plan Essay -- George C. Marshall The Marshall Plan Essays

The marshall Plan First and foremost, a great propagate of atomic number 63s success would not have happened without its initial caution from the United States. After helping destroy so much of the continent, the U.S. manage one thousand thousands and billions of dollars back into the European economy through The marshall Plan. It was named after depository of State George C. Marshall, who said The world of suffering people looks to us for leadership. Their thoughts, however, atomic number 18 not concentrated alone on this enigma. They have more spry and terribly pressing concerns where the mouthful of food impart act from, where they will find shelter tonight, and where they will find warmth. Along with the great problem of maintaining the peace we must solve the problem of the pittance of food, of clothing and coal and homes. incomplete of these problems can be solved alone. (DeLong) In the first two post-World warfare II years the U.S. contributed through this plan, about four billion dollars a year to relief and reconstruction. The Marshall Plan continued these flows at comparable with(predicate) rates and was a multi-year commitment. From 1948 to 1951, the U.S. contributed $13.2 billion to European recovery. $3.2 billion went to the United Kingdom, $2.7 billion to France, $1.5 billion to Italy, and $1.4 billion to the Western-occupied zones of Germany (DeLong). An astounding $15.5 billion had been provided to Europe before the Marshall plan was enacted (Wegs, 66). The availability of Marshall Plan aid gave European countries a pool of resources that could be used to cushion the wealth losses prolong in restructuring. Countries that received mammoth amounts of money from the Marshall Plan invested more. Countries could acquire the amounts of coal, cotton and petroleum needed (all of these were in short supply) when needed because of Marshall Plan aid. Great Britain used the Marshall Plan aid to extend public debt (DeLong). The Marshall Plan did have strings attached however. Countries had to associate to balance government budgets, restore internal financial stability, and stabilize rallying rates at realistic levels. Marshall plan aid was addressable only if Europe was committed to the mixed economy with the market playing a large part in the mix (DeLong). On their own, close to countries were able to rebuild or repair slightly damaged factories and warehouses. verso to popular belief, factories... ...re slow to get into the automobile production game. They refused to merge with other companies, instead vying to produce many kinds of automobiles, none of which got a great track of market share. None until the Mini came along, breaking from old traditional large British cars, creating a new craze (Wegs, 77-78). Not all was utopian forever in Europe though. All good things generally come to an end, and in the 1970s, the economy began to flounder. But for nearly twenty years, the western spate of Europe rebounded from nothingness, surged in no time, flourished for many years, became a major participant in the economic world once again, and truly rose want a phoenix from the ashes of war. Works CitedDeLong, J. Bradford, The Economic History of the Twentieth one C Slouching Towards Utopia? (University of California at Berkely and NBER http//www.j-bradford-delong.net/TCEH/Slouch_Present19.html , 1997) .Kindleberger, Charles P., The One and Only Marshall Plan, National Interest, Vol. 11, 113-115. Wegs, J. Robert and Ladrech, Robert, Europe Since 1945 A Concise History, 4th ed. (Boston St. Martins Press, Inc., 1996) 3, 12, 45-47, 65-79.