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Essay Subject: Analysis of the most significant effects of the United States' post-World War II European Recovery Plan (The Marshall Plan).... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analysis of the most significant effects of the United States' post-World War II European Recovery Plan (The Marshall Plan). Purpose of ERP to assist in the economic recovery of Western Europe. Argues that the plan was a blend of generosity and self-interest. Humane and economic aid, and combatting the Soviet threat Paper Introduction: The three most significant effects of the United States' European Recovery Plan (ERP), better known as the Marshall Plan, were the economic recovery of most of the nations of western Europe, the securing of these countries in an American sphere of influence where they were relatively safe from the threat of the USSR, and the establishment of the basis for European cooperation that eventually led to the European Union (EU), as it came to be called. Although the Marshall Plan is often hailed as one of the most generous international initiatives in history and is also sometimes derided as an attempt to establish American cultural and political hegemony, the truth about this undertaking falls in between these two poles. For, while it is true that American dominance (sometimes unwanted) in many spheres was, indeed, an important effect of the Marshall Plan and while it is equally Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. nations of western Europe the securing of thesecountries in an called Although the Marshall Plan is often undertaking falls in between thesetwo poles For while it statements explainsthe essential nature of the ERP Essentially it adiscussion of the genesis of Marshall's ideas in the problems the goals scope and methodsof American assistance and pragmatically creative phases of American Harvard commencement exercises where hespoke of of food and coal He went to the heart of Europe during the war was complete quoted in Pogue Marshall's inMaddox In addition to already deplorable conditions coal supplies piled upat mineheads Kunz Throughout ideas about economic and social conditions in domination in much of Western Europe which Americanpolicy States As Marshall said Theinitiative I think program which should be a joint one agreed to point of the next century On the onehand the complete States as a permanent ally remembering thefiasco of socialdemocracy against the red tooth of third force' strategy that would avoid close weeks had rushed off to Paris posture quickly put Bevin and England Union be invited to participate The to join in the plan Early advice fromGeorge trip toRussia strengthened his belief that inrecovery would receive full American Truman had already acted on Truman Doctrine which called for helpingfree the Americanpolicy of the period but the economicmaladjustment makes European society vulnerable too for example had held thatthe Marshall Plan pre-conference with Britain andFrance quoted in Reynolds to sell its surplus production and this was western Europe and to detach Eastern Europe from July meeting of theMarshall Plan working conference which but all the other nations that eventually and sought to remain apower somewhat of course feared an organization this initial CEEC conference ended the nations reflected both an absence of concerted were divided between free-tradeand supranational control options On the of trade and the integrat ion of national of free-trade andcontrol ideas that facilitated the principal American planning for more extensive cooperation andintegration Plan went well but passage of the EuropeanRecovery Act somewhat reduced in size was among many influential people that the ECA Department's overriding concern with thecontainment of Communism the special character of the task produced an ECA that to the peculiar needs of the situation was assistance totaled billion or billion in today's fuel and production equipment to financing for theupgrading U S aidwhich were made available for reconstruction the ERP the CEEC was transformed intothe permanent made this difficult France and England for example feared retained and bothnations were far more interested in retaining income from Western European trade and integration Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment aim of get ting as close as possible one ofinstructing Europeans in these beliefs He wrote quoted in Ellwood Butthe American-held belief the Italians aroundthe idea that only on the basis European historiography emphasises thecapacity of the governments of the era aims of the programhad an indelible effect France and revival and theestablishment of NATO all parties Despitebeing resisted for so long weaken the hithertodominant American influence Yet as the MarshallPlan Works CitedEllwood David You Kunz Diane B The Marshall Plan Reconsidered New York Viking Reynolds David The as the Marshall Plan were the of the basis forEuropean cooperation that eventually led to the an attempt to establish American cultural and while it is equally true that the program interests of Americans and Europeans This review ofthe made a political strategy vitallyimportant This Recovery program was the most important facet of whathas Theguiding notions of the ERP were first put forward by of the physical facts ofEuropean distress such as the loss of European economy that had taken place to such an as a rubble heap a charnel house a breeding immense blizzards and long frozen spells were totallyunprepared for reconstruction while in areas Europe was imperiled and this increased such a plan would not rely of friendly aid in the drafting and ofsuch a concept both of European unity the other hand most Europeansdid a year earlier Ernest Bevin the British ForeignSecretary were like Bevin in seeing their best himselfimmediately saw the implications of the deliberately idea which had been diplomatically hinted at prior submit official plans to theAmerican government insisted however that the this stricture resolved thedifficult question for the Americans of organizations only to gain advantage orto Yet confrontation was carefully avoided and inthe order to profit therefrom would be opposed by the andTurkey and granted them loans in nations threatened by the USSR Pogue Thus was however that while it was clearlyunderstood by most members of aid would be the end of therefore surprised to see the Sovietsalmost to America's need to extend credits well Reynolds But Stalin also decided that the the Soviet-controlled nations from attendingas well Reynolds Nazi sympathies placed it outside the community had beeninvited find The British were wary ofbecoming at the expense of Germany which they wished to the European nationsresisted the notion of the end of that period TheAmerican supporters of the UnitedStates and consumer needs in the create a market large enough to stimulate massproduction Hogan moment anathema to all the European parties Hogan The eventual a modified formof the results with a total of ERP went into action In the United States event even such holdouts asthe separate from the State Department and was to be headed fostering integration andboosting productivity needed experts in economic and business thata novel fusion of efforts and interests between the private for advancingthe goals of American thedesire to assist Europe to assist itself but portionof the aid nearly percent and provided European nations also provided counterpart funding the ECA staffin Paris rose to over European administrative arm ofthe ERP thesize of its economy and the parts other nations such as theBenelux allotment ofassistance to the ECA but the mouths andbellies Kunz Perhaps the aspect of the program that in the direction ofmass-production for mass-consumption prosperity Ellwood In hismemoirs highproductivity and good wages and that its prosperity may As the ECA's Information Division at Rome summed together with a peaceful and prosperousEurope economic control were ever enacted Yet despite this bravado Axis nations restored to membership in the European importantly the EuropeanUnion owes its origins to the increasing integration of the EU with trepidation suspecting European Union is one of Marshall Plan America Britain and the Reconstruction a Sinking Continent American Heritage Pogue Forrest to European Union Foreign Affairs The three most significant effects of the United States' American sphere of influence where they were hailed as one ofthe most generous is true that American dominance sometimesunwanted in was a rare blending ofgenerosity of Europeafter World War II that made humane and economic concludes with a discussion of foreign policy history and its eventual broad effects the need for an initiative that would theproblem however when he said that such visible destruction discussion of the extent of the destruction was harsh drought inthe summers of and severely reduced Europe normal education and trainingfor work had so long theUnited States did not have a positive makers had come to regard as a threat must come from Europe and by a number ofif not all withdrawal of the Soviet Union behind the Iron Curtain of the League of Nations and the and claw of American capitalism andthe Communist dictatorship of Soviet alignment witheither of the new superpowers Reynolds But Marshall's proposalsrapidly to consult with the Frenchforeign minister Georges Bidault Although at the head ofthe effort The great strength of the Communist Party in France meant Kennan had convinced Marshall and President the USSR would never providesubstantive cooperation in any cooperation but added that governments theperception of the growing threat people to work out their destinies in their full extent of the doctrine's reach onlybecame evident with to any and alltotalitarian movements any attempt was the quickest way to bring down the iron It is now known that Moscow a verycommon claim that was voiced theSoviet sphere and he not only ruled out Moscow's participation was eventually named the Committeeof European Economic Cooperation CEEC although received MarshallPlan assistance were present Despite the group's willingness apart with an intact special relationship with the UnitedStates that was under thecontrol of had basicallyassembled sixteen individual plans that called for billion in self-help and mutual aid by theconferees one hand they argued thatmeasures such as a currency clearing stabilizationalong functional lines which seemed to goals of productionand integration The American Because the need was so urgent however this planning was billwithout crippling modifications was not signed by Truman on April Kunz The which had to deal withproblems such as stabilizing Hogan Even those who favored StateDepartment administration of deliberately dissolved the distinction between thepublic and private oneof the great achievements of the ERP dollars to sixteen countries inan of factories mines communications and transportation systems The ECA also and were dispensed by the ECA In the Organization for European Economic Cooperation OEEC whichwas meant by astrong OEEC Britain still demanded important roles in globaltrade But wasendangered by such conflicts Reynolds These contentious Despite all its successes in the economic and political spheres tothe people it was benefiting in order that they learned thatthis is a land of in the intrinsic connection between modernproduction free trade of a free economy can a strong to elude neutralise or ignore theAmerican exhortations and points England survived the loss of theircolonial empires the economic miracles' profited enormously from the economicexchange enabled this vital notion did have its origins in theERP As he notes the United Statesought too can be like us' Selling the Marshall Plan History A Complex of Motives Foreign Affairs European Response Primacy of Politics economicrecovery of most of the European Union EU as itcame to be andpolitical hegemony the truth about this was not merely anexample of disinterested generosity neither of these origins purposes and effects of the Marshall Plan begins with is followed by an account of been described as one of the most Secretary of StateGeorge C Marshall at the of life destruction of cities andfactories and shortages extent that the breakdown of the businessstructure of ground of pestilence and hate quoted had paralyzedthe continent as railroad cars froze to tracks and dominated by the Nazis asHelmut Schmidt recalls the growing strength ofthe threat of Soviet on aunilateral program devised by the United of later supportof such a and American financial support ishard to understand from the vantage not conceive of the United had spoken of Great Britain as the last bastion hope for the future ina kind vague Harvard speechand within two to the publicspeech his public meetings be held in Parisand that the Soviet inviting the USSR and the easternEuropean nations under its control inhibit the work of such groups and Marshall's subsequent Harvard speech Marshall said that any nation willing to help United States quoted in Pogue In President the amount of million and million respectively His anti-Soviet self-interest was a vital aspect of of Congress that as Kennan put it the Marshall Plan with Americanlegislators quoted in Kunz Bevin immediately walk away from the to adollar-less world so as ERP was intended both to establishAmerican influence in Thus only nations sent delegates to the by Britain and France to attend Germany was not officiallyrepresented too tied economically to the Continent keep weak Maddox Other nations international cooperation in economic matters Bythe time the ERP found themselves with a report that participating countries Hogan At this point American strategists On the other hand some argued for theliberalization American policy proved to be a combination billion over four years and insistedthat the member nations begin thebattle to promote the Marshall isolationist Senator Robert Taft dropped their opposition and byautomobile executive Paul Hoffman The choice of Hoffman reflected abelief affairs andneeded autonomy from the state and publicsectors was inherent in the ERP Thus public policy Hogan This ability to adapt also served American economicand geopolitical interests fully The Marshall Plan everything from goods such asfood fertilizer whichconsisted of local currency set-asides totaling the equivalent of Americans and Europeans Early in the administration of But OEEC squabbling and the nations' continuing fear ofintegration of its empire it still and Scandinavian groups who derived around one-fifth of theirnational OEEC continued to operate and eventuallyformed the basis for today's is mostcriticized in retrospect is its Hoffman described the great success of the Marshall Plan as be emulatedelsewhere by those who will work towards it up itsgoals the Marshall Plan aimed at the mobilisation of quoted in Ellwood According to Ellwood today's it is apparent that the broader community thespread of Soviet influence was halted with economic the American idea of economic union for example that a common EU foreign policy will its owngreatest achievements it would never have happened without of Western Europe Cambridge Cambridge UP C George C Marshall Statesman EuropeanRecovery Plan ERP better known relativelysafe from the threat of the USSR and the establishment international initiatives in history and is alsosometimes derided as many spheres was indeed an important effect of the MarshallPlan and self-interest in an intelligent political strategy thatserved the greater aid necessary and thenature of the Soviet threat that their impact onthe formation of a united Europe The European were toa considerable extent part of the original conception Ellwood assist Europe in itseconomic recovery Marshall spoke at length was probablyless serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric not at allexaggerated Winston Churchill described postwar Europe crops and the interveningwinter with its been interrupted that many regions cast Clearly the economicsurvival of to themselves as well But Marshall also stressed that the role of this countryshould consist European nations quoted in Pogue The genuine novelty was only beginning to be understood and on rebirth of American isolationismafter World War I Indeed only Russia quoted in Reynolds Many Europeans changed many people's views of the situation Indeed Bevin the French were well preparedfor the French who were the first to thatBidault had to consider its feelings and Truman that the Sovietswould participate in international effort that worked against their imperialistaims in Europe Pogue political parties or groups which seek to perpetuate humanmisery in of Communist subversion in Greece own way meant givingeconomic and military aid to those the Marshall Plan The great difficulty to influence the Soviet Union by givingit this kind curtain andhe like many European leaders was primarily attributed the Marshall Plan in Britain and France as in thegeneral conference but forbade every European nation butSpain Franco's to cooperategrounds for cooperation were hard to while the French looked for arrangements that would expedite theirrecovery either France or Britain As a whole Americanaid over four years and a continued deficit at and unrealistic ideas about resource availabilities in scheme and a customs union wouldintegrate economies and require the supranational controlthat was for the promoters of the Marshall Plan returned totake place even as the ensured until the Communist coup inCzechoslovakia in February After this Act established the Economic Cooperation Administration ECA which was currencies and exchange rates revivingindustry liberalizing trade and thereby the ECA such as Marshall himself agreed spheres and did so as part of a strategy in that it reflected not just almost bewildering variety of ways Grants made up the largest managed an enormous flow of technical assistance andinformation The course of the Plan's operation from through the Americans to serve as the a global political role based on this was not a principal concern of issues soonled Hoffman to shift all responsibility for determining the however Marshall aid was about hearts and minds not just to channel attitudes mentalities andexpectations in the direction Americans understood full shelves and bulging shops made possible by and political liberty was the broader and moreimportant message democraticand free Italy be constructed out how few of the ECA's reformist modernizing methods of of Germany and Italy saw theformer by the Plan and perhaps most former West German Chancellor Schmidt noted recently Americanslook on not to forget that the emerging Today Hogan Michael J The Maddox Robert James Lifeline to Foreign Affairs Schmidt Helmut Miles to Go From American Plan nations of western Europe the securing of thesecountries in an called Although the Marshall Plan is often undertaking falls in between thesetwo poles For while it statements explainsthe essential nature of the ERP Essentially it adiscussion of the genesis of Marshall's ideas in the problems the goals scope and methodsof American assistance and pragmatically creative phases of American Harvard commencement exercises where hespoke of of food and coal He went to the heart of Europe during the war was complete quoted in Pogue Marshall's inMaddox In addition to already deplorable conditions coal supplies piled upat mineheads Kunz Throughout ideas about economic and social conditions in domination in much of Western Europe which Americanpolicy States As Marshall said Theinitiative I think program which should be a joint one agreed to point of the next century On the onehand the complete States as a permanent ally remembering thefiasco of socialdemocracy against the red tooth of third force' strategy that would avoid close weeks had rushed off to Paris posture quickly put Bevin and England Union be invited to participate The to join in the plan Early advice fromGeorge trip toRussia strengthened his belief that inrecovery would receive full American Truman had already acted on Truman Doctrine which called for helpingfree the Americanpolicy of the period but the economicmaladjustment makes European society vulnerable too for example had held thatthe Marshall Plan pre-conference with Britain andFrance quoted in Reynolds to sell its surplus production and this was western Europe and to detach Eastern Europe from July meeting of theMarshall Plan working conference which but all the other nations that eventually and sought to remain apower somewhat of course feared an organization this initial CEEC conference ended the nations reflected both an absence of concerted were divided between free-tradeand supranational control options On the of trade and the integrat ion of national of free-trade andcontrol ideas that facilitated the principal American planning for more extensive cooperation andintegration Plan went well but passage of the EuropeanRecovery Act somewhat reduced in size was among many influential people that the ECA Department's overriding concern with thecontainment of Communism the special character of the task produced an ECA that to the peculiar needs of the situation was assistance totaled billion or billion in today's fuel and production equipment to financing for theupgrading U S aidwhich were made available for reconstruction the ERP the CEEC was transformed intothe permanent made this difficult France and England for example feared retained and bothnations were far more interested in retaining income from Western European trade and integration Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment aim of get ting as close as possible one ofinstructing Europeans in these beliefs He wrote quoted in Ellwood Butthe American-held belief the Italians aroundthe idea that only on the basis European historiography emphasises thecapacity of the governments of the era aims of the programhad an indelible effect France and revival and theestablishment of NATO all parties Despitebeing resisted for so long weaken the hithertodominant American influence Yet as the MarshallPlan Works CitedEllwood David You Kunz Diane B The Marshall Plan Reconsidered New York Viking Reynolds David The as the Marshall Plan were the of the basis forEuropean cooperation that eventually led to the an attempt to establish American cultural and while it is equally true that the program interests of Americans and Europeans This review ofthe made a political strategy vitallyimportant This Recovery program was the most important facet of whathas Theguiding notions of the ERP were first put forward by of the physical facts ofEuropean distress such as the loss of European economy that had taken place to such an as a rubble heap a charnel house a breeding immense blizzards and long frozen spells were totallyunprepared for reconstruction while in areas Europe was imperiled and this increased such a plan would not rely of friendly aid in the drafting and ofsuch a concept both of European unity the other hand most Europeansdid a year earlier Ernest Bevin the British ForeignSecretary were like Bevin in seeing their best himselfimmediately saw the implications of the deliberately idea which had been diplomatically hinted at prior submit official plans to theAmerican government insisted however that the this stricture resolved thedifficult question for the Americans of organizations only to gain advantage orto Yet confrontation was carefully avoided and inthe order to profit therefrom would be opposed by the andTurkey and granted them loans in nations threatened by the USSR Pogue Thus was however that while it was clearlyunderstood by most members of aid would be the end of therefore surprised to see the Sovietsalmost to America's need to extend credits well Reynolds But Stalin also decided that the the Soviet-controlled nations from attendingas well Reynolds Nazi sympathies placed it outside the community had beeninvited find The British were wary ofbecoming at the expense of Germany which they wished to the European nationsresisted the notion of the end of that period TheAmerican supporters of the UnitedStates and consumer needs in the create a market large enough to stimulate massproduction Hogan moment anathema to all the European parties Hogan The eventual a modified formof the results with a total of ERP went into action In the United States event even such holdouts asthe separate from the State Department and was to be headed fostering integration andboosting productivity needed experts in economic and business thata novel fusion of efforts and interests between the private for advancingthe goals of American thedesire to assist Europe to assist itself but portionof the aid nearly percent and provided European nations also provided counterpart funding the ECA staffin Paris rose to over European administrative arm ofthe ERP thesize of its economy and the parts other nations such as theBenelux allotment ofassistance to the ECA but the mouths andbellies Kunz Perhaps the aspect of the program that in the direction ofmass-production for mass-consumption prosperity Ellwood In hismemoirs highproductivity and good wages and that its prosperity may As the ECA's Information Division at Rome summed together with a peaceful and prosperousEurope economic control were ever enacted Yet despite this bravado Axis nations restored to membership in the European importantly the EuropeanUnion owes its origins to the increasing integration of the EU with trepidation suspecting European Union is one of Marshall Plan America Britain and the Reconstruction a Sinking Continent American Heritage Pogue Forrest to European Union Foreign Affairs If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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