"The World Hangs in the Balance": George C. Marshall and the European Recovery Plan (2003)

It is not unusual these days to see headlines in the editorial pages of newspapers that evoke the memory of the Marshall Plan, a post World War II program for the economic reconstruction of Europe. Many commentators urge the U.S. to repeat such a program in war-torn countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. Although political leaders debate the applicability of a Marshall Plan concept to an assortment of modern nation-building challenges, most agree that the 1948-51 Marshall Plan in Europe embodied the best of American values and spirit. Thus, when the Marshall Plan--also known as the European Recovery Plan--is mentioned nowadays, most Americans stand a bit taller, taking pride in its accomplishments. Many do not realize that General George C. Marshall, the person most responsible for launching the plan that bears his name, had a very difficult time convincing Americans in the post-war United States that congressional funding was warranted for such a program. Marshall was to say years later that gaining support for this act was just a struggle from start to finish. In 1945, with World War II over, this professional soldier could not have imagined the chain of events that would lead him to meet the European Recovery Program challenge. Marshall had every reason to believe that he had fought his last battle. His career in the United States Army had spanned forty-three years. In the four years of global conflict, as army chief of staff, General Marshall had succeeded in accomplishing a staggering task, including building an army of eight million, and assisting President Franklin Roosevelt in hammering out with Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, a strategic plan for the defeat of the Axis powers. At war's end, Marshall wanted nothing more than to retire and enjoy life with his wife Katherine. However, President Harry S. Truman waited only a day after Marshall's official retirement ceremony to call him back to work, sending him first as special emissary to China, and then tapping him in January 1947 to become secretary of state. Retirement would have to wait. The European Emergency Secretary Marshall quickly found his attention focused on Western Europe. Conditions there could hardly have been more severe in the aftermath of the second great war of the century. These countries experienced a severe drought in the summer of 1946, and, in an added cruel twist of nature, the winter of early 1947 was one of the most bitter on record. Temperatures were below zero, and normal waterway traffic came to a standstill as barges and boats froze in rivers. Snow fell in record amounts, and the severe weather killed off an estimated four million acres of wheat. In Austria and Germany people were dying in the streets from starvation. Industrial activity had come to a halt--factories had no raw materials to produce finished products, and getting the goods to market was hindered by bombed out bridges, railroads, and ports. Even Britain had not rebounded: six million workers were out of lobs and food was rationed more tightly than during the war. Winston Churchill described it succinctly: What is Europe now? A rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate:' The western democracies feared that Europe would also be fertile ground for the spread of communism. In Greece, the British had strived to help end a civil war in which the communists had been backed and supplied by the Soviets. Britain had also provided aid to Turkey to support it against possible Soviet expansion. However, the State Department on February 21, 1947 received official word from the British government that because of economic conditions, Great Britain could no longer finance efforts to stay the tide of communism in Greece and Turkey, and would end its aid in six weeks. The State Department immediately went to work developing a plan calling for the U.S. to take on this role. Marshall attended a White House meeting of the president and congressional leaders, urging immediate assistance to Greece and Turkey in a low-key, but earnest manner. …