Title: What was the goal of the Marshall Plan? | Yahoo Answers
Headings: What was the goal of the Marshall Plan?
All Categories
Anonymous
What was the goal of the Marshall Plan?
4 Answers

Content: France, Italy and Greece were already quite sympathetic to left-wing ideas. Secondly, the US had grown incredibly rich from World War 2- the wealth of the British empire was theirs in war debts to be repayed, while America had suffered no direct damage to its infrastructure and had taken relatively few casualties. A large wad of cash needs to be invested somewhere... and a recovering Europe was better for US multinationals. This is not to deny the altruistic aspects of the Marshall Plan- it was a great moment in American history and today is known by every American schoolkid as evidence of America's benevolence and kindness. But just remember it never would have happened with Reagan as president, or with Paul Wolfowitz in charge of the World Bank. ...Show more
seraph1818
Lv 6
1 decade ago
The idea of extending billions of American dollars for European economic recovery after WWII was not George C. Marshall's (1880-1959) alone. He was only one of many Western leaders who realized the tragic consequences of doing nothing for those war-shattered countries in which basic living conditions were deplorable and still deteriorating two years after the end of the fighting. But Marshall, more than anyone else, led the way. In an address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, Marshall, in his capacity as Secretary of State, articulated the general principles of the Marshall Plan. Between 1948 and 1951, the United States contributed more than thirteen billion dollars of economic, agricultural, and technical assistance toward the recovery of free Europe.