Title: Why Marshall Plan was so important | Op-eds – Gulf News
Headings: Why Marshall Plan was so important
Why Marshall Plan was so important
Content: Europe was still a mess. The war may have ended in May 1945, but Europe remained in tatters in spring 1947. The US had already provided vast sums of aid, but it was not creating the recovery needed. As one historian said, “Production had stalled, trade languished, and Europeans lacked the dollars to purchase urgently needed American goods. Acute shortages of food and fuel were exacerbated by a crippling summer 1946 drought and a bitterly cold winter.” As Marshall hammered home in his speech, without urgent US aid, Europe would “face economic, social and political deterioration of a very grave character”. Subsequent congressional trips to Europe in fall 1947 brought the acute suffering home to members of Congress sceptical of American internationalism on such a large scale, converting several to support the plan. n 2. The Marshall Plan was one piece in the larger Cold War puzzle. Although Truman administration officials believed true peace would come only once Europe was rebuilt and the region was set upon a solid path for the future, fears of growing Communist and Soviet influence in Western Europe also were a motivating factor.