Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
After the conclusion of the brutal World War II, Europe was left in ruins – all of the governments were torn to shreds and beautiful cities looked like nothing more than graveyards. New government powers subsequently emerged; countries began to adopt the communist governmental system. Communism was a type of government, where the government controlled the nation and people would work as one nation to be successful. This idealistic government was adopted by many countries; however, it was not possible to achieve completely because the people in charge took advantage of it and others suffered. In the United States, communism and communist countries, such as the Soviet Union, were feared and hated; they were looked at as evil (Yaksic was in great favor of it however). The United States believed communism took away the rights of freedom and as the idea of communism spread, democracy was being threatened. A very good way the United States could try to stop the spread communism was by helping the nations of Europe that agreed to not become or no longer stay communist. President Truman ignited the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was created with the purpose of helping democracy flourish in Europe and it was successful since the majority of the western European countries did not fall under communist ways.
President Truman responded with a bold policy, when the threat of countries falling into heightened. In response Truman needed a strong, bold leader, he went to George C. Marshall, the Secretary of State, and created a genius plan of action. Marshall invited the Europeans to get together and work out a joint plan for economic recovery in an address. He specifically stated:
It is already evident that, before the United States Government can proceed much further in its efforts to alleviate the situation and help start the European world on its way to recovery, there must be some agreement among the countries of Europe as to the requirements of the situation and the part those countries themselves will take in order to give proper effect to whatever action might be undertaken by this Government. It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for this Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically. This is the business of the Europeans. The initiative, I think, must come from Europe.
In this address Marshall called out Europe by telling them that they must take the “initiative.” This calling out by Marshall really sent a message to European nations.
Marshall also stated that if the European nations did meet, then the United States would provide substantial financial assistance, something no nation can deny.
The democratic nations of Europe were very energetic about the Marshall Plan and were dying to hear it. Marshall offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, in a meeting that occurred in Paris, as long as they made political reforms and accepted certain outside