On June 5th, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall told the graduating class at Harvard University that Europe and the world were in a perilous state. World War II had devastated the continent and he said the U.S. must do everything it could to return Europe to economic health. Marshall's Harvard speech was the foundation of the so-called Marhsall Plan, a four year, $13 billion foreign aid program.
It was 1947, two years after the guns fell silent. Europe's great cities were in ruins. There was hunger. The worst winter in memory brought the worst harvest of the century. Liberated from the Nazis, western Europe was in danger of sliding into chaos.
The prime motivation for launching the Marshall Plan was fear of chaos in Western Europe. You saw this if you went to the movies every weekend. On the beginning of the feature they would show problems in Europe on the newsreels. Starving women and children affect American hearts. So that there's the aspect of women and children in Western Europe. But also the strength of the communist party in countries like France and Italy was very worrisome.
Communist parties were powerful in France and Italy. Eastern Europe was occupied by the Soviet Army. There was massive unemployment. Europe's industry was at a standstill.
Immediately after providing emergency supplies of food and clothing, the U.S. Marshall plan focused on economic chokepoints. Coal mines were the first to benefit. Without coal to fuel factories and mills, Europe's economy would never recover.
Winston Churchill called the Marshall Plan the 'most unsordid act' in history. The recovery from the most destructive war in history was dramatic.
Western Europe's gross national product went up 32 percent in the 4 years of the Marshall Plan's existence, sparked a generation-long economic boom and provided the framework for what eventually became the European union.
