Title: Marshall Plan
Headings: Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
Introduction
Background
The Economic Cooperation Act
Non-European countries affected

Content: The Marshall Plan provided markets for American goods, created reliable trading partners, and supported the development of stable democratic governments in Western Europe. Congress’s approval of the Marshall Plan signaled an extension of the multilateralism of World War II into the postwar years. The plan was to terminate on June 30, 1952, with a possible 12-month extension. The plan was not a simple cash handover, but the temporary creation of an entire bureaucratic structure and extension of American government management in Europe. The generosity and commitment of the United States to its European allies during World War II, plus the Marshall Plan, made the European Union of today possible. To become eligible for assistance under the act, each participating country was required to conclude an agreement with the United States Government that committed it to the act's purposes. Participants stabilized their currency, promoted production, cooperated with other participating countries in the interchange of goods, furnished the United States with needed materials, submitted progress reports and took other measures to expedite a return to economic self-sufficiency. Non-European countries affected
Under provisions of title IV of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, China and Korea, although not participants in the Marshall Plan, were furnished assistance in a similar manner. After January 1, 1949, the ECA took over from the U.S. Army the administration of the program for relief and economic rehabilitation of Korea. The view by the Truman Administration in the spring of 1948, of the on-going Chinese revolution was that the Communists under Mao Zedong would fail to control China with one government, if they won over the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek at all.