The Marshall Plan

In 1947 much of Europe faced hunger, shattered industry and a brutal winter, and communist parties in France and Italy were gaining support. In a speech at Harvard on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall offered American help for European recovery. Under the European Recovery Program, the US gave about $13 billion between 1948 and 1952, mostly as grants, to sixteen European countries and the western zones of Germany.

The aid bought food, fuel and machinery, and it required recipients to cooperate on plans, laying groundwork for European integration. Aid was offered to the USSR and Eastern Europe, but Stalin rejected it, seeing a scheme to spread American influence, and he pressured Poland and Czechoslovakia to refuse. The plan combined generosity with strategy: it eased suffering, opened markets for US goods, and reduced the appeal of communism, deepening the split of Europe into two economic blocs.