Europe and America in the Term Paper

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The United States offered up to $20 billion for relief, but only if the European nations could unite and draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid (Marshall1 pp). For the first time in history, they would have to cooperate with each other and act as a single economic unit (Marshall1 pp). Although Marshall also offered aid to the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe, Stalin denounced the programs as a trick and refused to participate, however the Russian rejection probably made the passage of the measure through Congress possible (Marshall1 pp).

It should be noted that the Marshall Plan also benefited the American economy, because the money would be used to buy goods from the United States that had to be shipped across the Atlantic on American merchant vessels (Marshall1 pp). The Marshall Plan worked and by 1953, the United States had pumped in some $13 billion into the European economy, and Europe was once again standing on its feet (Marshall1 pp). Furthermore, the Plan included West Germany, which was thus reintegrated into the European community (Marshall1 pp). It should also be noted that under the Marshall Plan, all aid was economic and did not include military aid until after the Korean War (Marshall1 pp).

The Marshall Plan not only put Europe back on its feet, it led to the Schuman Plan, which in turn led to Euratom, then the Coal and Iron Community and the Common Market, and pointed to what may yet evolve into an economically and politically united Europe (Marshall1 pp).
The Marshall Plan satisfied those who wanted U.S. foreign policy to be generous and idealistic, as well as those who demanded "realpolitik" (Marshall1 pp). Moreover, it provided shelter for the homeless and food for the starving, while at the same time stopping the spread of communism as well as putting the European economy back on its feet (Marshall1 pp).

Without the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, much of the European landscape today would resemble that of developing nations.

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