The Reason of Marshall Plan

In June 5th, 1947, Marshall declared a famous speech in Harvard University. The idea of providing economic aid to the all Europe came on the scene. Between 1948 and the end of 1951, United States channeled $12.3 billion aid to Western Europe including grants, loans and in-kind transfer. The effects of Marshall Plan are all-encompassing, for example, contributing to the cold war, helping the recovery of European economy and European integration. Someone called in question about its necessity, someone embraced it as the saver of the world. It is wondered what is the deep reason that pushed America to launch the plan. Though many scholars have written about this topic, this paper will call for reassessment of the existing literature based on recent findings, new methodologies. This essay will specifically argue that the main reasons of the launch of Marshall Plan are the threats of communism and the interweaving interest’s network of America and Europe. In the first part, it will display the urgency of 1947 European crisis. In the next part, it will focus on the threats from the communism and inferred with the Truman doctrine declared before. Next, it will analyze the short-term and long-term interests that America could gain from the plan.

After the World War II, the Europe showed a sign of fast recovery at the beginning, and soon faced with increasingly worsening situation. Within several months after the war, through large scale reconstruction of the infrastructure, the industry recovered quickly. People were drowned in the prospect of peace and happiness of a fresh start. However, the limits on the raw material and lack of the energy supply constrained the recovery soon. Further worse, during the winter of 1947, because of the heavy snow, roads, bridges, rail links, and water ways were impassible, hindering the obtaining of raw material and transportation of the products. The thawing snows also flooded coal mines, making the production of steel fell backward

Bibliography: Calbraith John, 1998. ‘Interview with prof. J k. Galbraith, 28/11/95’ <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-2/galbraith1.html> 12 November 2012 Debouzy Marianne .1998 Hitchcock, W. I, ’The Marshall Plan and the creation of the West’ in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, 1 (2010) pp.154-174. Hogan Michael J. The Marshall Plan America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952 （New York: 1987） Judit, T., ‘The rehabilitation of Europe’ in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York, 2006) pp Milward, A. S. (1989) “Was the Marshall Plan Necessary?” In Diplomatic History, pp. 231–252. Online available from <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1989.tb00053.x/abstract> [25th October 2012] Parrish S.D [ 2 ]. Quoted inWilliam Hitchcock, ‘The Marshall Plan and the creation of the West’, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, 1:8 (2010),p.156 [ 3 ] [ 7 ]. Quoted inWilliam Hitchcock, ‘The Marshall Plan and the creation of the West’, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, 1:8 (2010),p.156. [ 8 ]. Calbraith John, 1998. ‘Interview with prof. J k. Galbraith, 28/11/95’ 12 November 2012 [ 9 ]