How Did The Marshall Plan To Become An American

Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, stated in his speech that, “The role of this country should consist of friendly aid in the drafting of a European program and of later support of such a program so far as it may be practical for us to do so.” Marshall’s speech at Harvard University helped show the impact that the United States could make on European countries by helping restore the political and economic crisis that had happened due to World War II. As a result of the many disasters that happened in Europe after the war, the Marshall Plan was to be placed in order to give Western Europe billions of dollars to help rebuild their economies and to maintain a better way of living than they had become used to. Europe was in need of great
Much of Europe was stricken with poverty, and also in trouble due to an upcoming famine because of the disruption of agriculture. The United States was the only major power that did not go through terrible damage.
When the second world war was over, the Soviet Union had taken control of much of Eastern Europe and began to ally with communists government. The “Iron Curtain” was then set in place by Winston Churchill that divided the western and eastern parts of Europe because of the communism that would be spread throughout every country in Europe. The Cold War was in the beginning stages when President Truman appointed George C. Marshall as the new secretary of State. Marshall was able to realize that the United States was Europes only hope in providing aid to the European nations. Before the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine was set in place in 1947, which granted $400 million to Greece and also to Turkey. Many of the survivors in Europe were homeless and hungry, unemployed, and those who were employed struggled with
The day that Marshall gave the speech, Harvard Yard was filled with 15,000 people who he did not expect to see and the people also were not expecting that history was to be made on that day. The people could tell that Marshall’s speech was carefully worded around the crisis that was taking place in Europe. The speech outlined that many European nations needed aid to help recover from the impacts of World War II. Marshall said, ““It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace,” meaning that the plan would be developed by the Europeans who would then present their plan to the United States. What Marshall did not say in his speech was that this plan would be there not only to give those countries aid, but also the best defense against the communism that could have potentially expanded from the Soviet Union further into Europe. European countries reacted very quickly after the speech had been made. Britain and France were the first to discuss any plans, but made sure to not offend the Soviet Union when devising their plans. When the countries met, the Soviet Union was invited as well but declined and put pressure on other countries such as Poland, Hungary,