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Today in History: George Marshall Calls for Postwar Economic Aid to Europe
06/05/10
On June 5, 1947, in an influential commencement address at Harvard University, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall first proposed the comprehensive postwar economic aid program that became known as the Marshall Plan. Formally known as the Economic Cooperation Program, the plan provided $13 billion in U.S. funds to help rebuild and stabilize the European economy in the wake of World War II.
Reeling from wartime destruction and loss of life, Europe faced the threat of famine and political chaos in the conflict’s aftermath. Marshall argued that direct financial assistance by the United States would help restore the continent’s industrial and agricultural productivity and slow the spread of communism to struggling nations. “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,” he explained. “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.”
The foreign aid provided under the Marshall Plan was widely credited with helping to rebuild Europe’s economic infrastructure, and the successful initiative earned Marshall the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. Marshall offered more suggestions to promote world peace in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
Read GEORGE C. MARSHALL’S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Read THE MARSHALL PLAN
Read GEORGE C. MARSHALL’S NOBEL PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH