MARSHALL AIDFACTS SHEET:

Implemented on April 3rd 1948 as the Economic recovery program (ERP) of 1948 aka The Marshall Plan

This program aimed to encourage European cooperation and provide aid to the devastated nations after the war

In the first year of Marshall aid $5,300,000,000 was sanctioned for the program and by the end of the ERP on 31 December 1951approximately $12,500,000,000 had been spent on aiding affected European countries

Marshall Aid helped in 18 European countries, however, the Soviet Union refused aid and convinced Eastern European countries to deny the aid as well

The Marshall Plan was supposed to be mutually beneficial but situations such as the US cancelling aid to the Netherlands after discovering they had been hiding large gold reserves suggest the US had ulterior motives to benefit from these European countries

QUOTES/PERSPECTIVESThe material assistance and the moral encouragement provided by the Marshall Plan brought a powerful new impetus to the campaign for European unity. In fact, it can be said that the American policy of economic aid, coupled with the pressure of the Communist danger, created conditions in which, for the first time, the unification of Europe became a practical possibility

- The Council of Europe, 1949

This magnanimous support [the Marshall Plan] deserves above all to be assessed from the point of view of its moral effect. It gave the German people the feeling that they were no longer written off by the rest of the world but that they also could again take part in the progress of the free world. Its economic and financial significance was, moreover, no less-- Ludwig Erhard

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1963-1966

Churchill's words won the war,

Marshall's words won the peace.

--Dirk Stikker,Foreign Minister of The Netherlands, 1948-1952

I believe that, in years to come, we shall look back upon this undertaking as the dividing line between the old era of world affairs and the new -- the dividing line between the old era of national suspicion, economic hostility, and isolationism, and the new era of mutual cooperation to increase the prosperity of people throughout the world.

General Marshall will be known as one of those who brought this new era into being. But he would be the first to agree that it is more than the creation of statesmen. It comes from the minds and hearts of all the people. Our peoples are united in their determination to work together to deal with the basic problems of human life.

-- Harry S Truman

President of the United States, 1945-1953

WRITTEN SOURCES

George Marshall, Secretary of State, speech at Harvard University (5th June, 1947)

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. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.

PICTURE SOURCES