Title: The Marshall Plan: Design, Accomplishments, and Significance - EveryCRSReport.com
Headings: The Marshall Plan: Design, Accomplishments, and Significance
The Marshall Plan: Design, Accomplishments, and Significance
The Marshall Plan: Design, Accomplishments, and Significance
Contents
Figures
Tables
Appendixes
Summary
The Marshall Plan and the Present 1
Formulation of the Marshall Plan
The Situation in Europe
How the Plan Was Formulated
The Role of Europe
Executive and Congressional Roles
Implementation of the Marshall Plan
Funding and Recipients
Administrative Agents
Economic Cooperation Administration
The Organization for European Economic Cooperation
Programs
Dollar Aid: Commodity Assistance and Project Financing
Counterpart Funds
Technical Assistance
Investment Guaranties
How Programs Contributed to Aims
The Sum of Its Parts: Evaluating the Marshall Plan
How the Marshall Plan Was Different
Accomplishments of the Marshall Plan
Did It Meet Its Objectives?
Production
Balance of Trade and the Dollar Gap
Trade Liberalization
Other Benefits
Psychological Boost
Economic Integration 48
Stability and Containment of Communism
U.S. Domestic Procurement
Enhanced Role in Europe for the United States
Proving Ground for U.S. Development Programs
Critiques of the Marshall Plan
Lessons of the Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan as Precedent
Appendix. References
Footnotes

Content: Prior to formulation of a program of assistance, the United States required that European nations agree on a financial proposal, including a plan of action committing Europe to take steps toward solving its economic problems. The Truman Administration and Congress worked together to formulate the European Recovery Program, which eventually provided roughly $13.3 billion ($143 billion in 2017 dollars) of assistance to 16 countries. Implementation. Two agencies implemented the program, the U.S.-managed Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) and the European-run Organization for European Economic Cooperation. The latter helped ensure that participants fulfilled their joint obligations to adopt policies encouraging trade and increased production. The ECA provided dollar assistance to Europe to purchase commodities—food, fuel, and machinery—and leveraged funds for specific projects, especially those to develop and rehabilitate infrastructure. It also provided technical assistance to promote productivity, offered guaranties to encourage U.S. private investment, and approved the use of local currency matching funds. Accomplishments. While, in some cases, a direct connection can be drawn between American assistance and a positive outcome, for the most part, the Marshall Plan may be viewed best as a stimulus that set off a chain of events leading to a range of accomplishments. At the completion of the Marshall Plan period, European agricultural and industrial production were markedly higher, the balance of trade and related "dollar gap" much improved, and significant steps had been taken toward trade liberalization and economic integration.