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: From 1948 to 1952, the US provided more than $13 billion (Dh47.81 billion) in aid to 16 nations. As one historian said, “The United States funds performed a dazzling array of tasks, helping to rebuild Italy’s Fiat automobile plant, modernizing mines in Turkey, and enabling Greek farmers to purchase Missouri mules.” Over the previous decade, from 1938 to 1947, Europe’s standard of living had dropped precipitously, with West Germany seeing a 15.4 per cent decrease, Italy 25.8 per cent, and Austria 39.5 per cent. Under the first three years of the Marshall Plan, gross national product in these nations grew 33.5 per cent. All the more important, the aid and growth during this period spurred tremendous economic growth throughout the decades to come. The standard of living in participating countries grew almost 150 per cent over the next three decades, and the strong economic base that the Marshall Plan provided also benefited the United States, leading to significant US export growth to Western Europe. n 4. The plan helped spur European integration. Many in the Truman administration were hoping to replicate America in Europe, creating a type of “United States of Europe”. The first steps in this process were actually launched in Marshall’s speech itself, when he called on the Europeans to come together to hash out their priorities and needs on their own.