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Marshall Plan

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the name was deliberate because George Marshall was considerably more popular than Harry Truman

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would raise the odds of getting it through congress

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but it was a team effort:

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Dean Acheson

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played key role

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stressed anti-communist message to congress

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advocate of free trade

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George Kennan

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contain Soviet communism and it will "expire of its own contradictions"

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no military confrontation

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an economic revival in Western Europe was necessary

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Will Clayton

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major role in shaping the Marshall Plan in 1947

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economic adviser to Truman at the Potsdam Conference

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-In 1948, he returned to his private business in Houston, but remained active in efforts to promote free trade

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came from Texas, dealt in cotton, advocate of free trade

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one reason why Europeans couldn't buy products from America is they didn't have hard currency

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we have this image of the Marshall Plan as a foreign aid effort, we were very generous and we gave the Europeans tons of money. That's a kind of good cartoon story of the Marshall Plan, but you can't learn anything from it. It misses what really made the Marshall Plan work:

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1. the Marshall Plan encouraged the Europeans to "create a shopping list", tell us what you would buy if you had a lot of dollars

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then the American government would be their purchasing agent, "we'll go buy it"

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of course, the American government will buy it from American companies

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the Europeans like it because they get massive amounts of money to make purchases from the United States which they otherwise would not be able to afford

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2. Europeans had to agree that they would knock down the trade barriers within Europe

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America said: "We're not going to deal with eight European countries, each with it's own trade walls"

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then you can participate together and create your shopping list for us

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3. prewar political rivalries have to be downplayed and muted

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communist point of view

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everything about the Marshall plan is wrong, since the Americans are the hub, not the Soviets

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cooperative elements imply free trade, incompatible with communist economic ideology

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implementation of the Marshall Plan

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1947, 48, and into the 50s

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effects

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psychological

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gave people confidence that "the glass was filling instead of draining"

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gave them political and economic confidence about the future

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vision for Europe

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created a vision for Western Europe as a cooperative entity combining its resources

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French political polls

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no right wing, monarchical voting, although a few Gaulists but not very strong

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communists at their height, made up majority with democratic socialists, and social democrats

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1947 Communists launch a general strike, and are pushed out of power

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social democrats:

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big government, big companies, big unions, free market with a strong government role, a lot of institution building

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sometimes called Christian Democrats

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become the key centrist force

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Jean Monnet and Robert Schumann

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cooperated, and are committed to bridging Western European countries and getting them to work together

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Eastern Europe

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Soviet Union increasingly tightenting its grip

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a tragic story for the fate of Eastern Europe

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subverted democratic forces

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made sure that they and their allies seize power

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West was helpless to intervene

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created flashpoints

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was a shock since the whole cause of Czechoslovakia was still fresh in minds from WWII

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divided Germany and divided Berlin

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1948: Soviets cut Berlin off, forcing Berlin to be kept afloat

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this backfired and created iconic images of the West going to great lengths to provide for Berlin

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images like the American plane landing in Berlin to feed children had a galvanizing effect on Europe and clarified the nature of the two Europes that were coming into existence