THE MARSHALL PLAN/THE OEEC

Bucur Mircea-DavidSilaghi Raul-Bogdan

RISE-E; Year I

It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health to the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is not directed against any country, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Any government that is willing to assist in recovery will find full co-operation on the part of the U.S.A. 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.

- George C. Marshall

EUROPE IN RUINS•Food shortages.

•Currency devaluation.

•Expected to fall into extreme poverty for the next 50 to 75 years.

•Importing goods, out of the question.

•Europe, trapped inside a vicious cycle.

•Relief funds used on immediate needs.

•No long term plan.

•Communists gaining ground.

THE MAN WITH THE PLAN•5th of May; 1947 – Marshall’s speech at Harvard University.

•Goods – free of charge. Usage of counterpart funds.

•Strategic move against Soviet expansion.

•The goal: European economic independence.

RECEIVING AID•No more restrictions for Germany.

•German coal industry and French steel industry joined.

•Economy revitalized.

French steel mill.

STALIN DISAGREES•Stalin urges Eastern Europe not to accept Marshall Plan.

•Countries that refuse the Marshall Plan get rewarded with food and heavy machinery.

•Soviet aid program starts: “Molotov Plan”; later COMECON.

OEEC•Organization for European Economic Cooperation.•Founded in 1948 as means to distribute and

supervise “Marshall Aid dollars”.•Promotes intra-European trade.•Became redundant after 1952.•Replaced in 1961 by the OECD.

Bibliography• "Postwar: A History Of Europe Since 1945" - Tony Judt - Penguin Books,

2006

• "The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952" - Michael J. Hogan - Cambridge University Press, 1987

• "The Marshall Plan: Fifty Years Later" - Martin Schain - Palgrave Macmillan, 2001

• http://www.marshallfoundation.org

• http://www.oecd.org

THEEND

RISE-EYear I

Bucur Mircea-DavidSilaghi Raul-Bogdan