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Content: The money would be used to buy goods from the United States, and
they had to be shipped across the Atlantic on American merchant vessels. But it worked. By 1953 the United States had pumped in $13 billion, and
Europe was standing on its feet again. Moreover, the Plan included West
Germany, which was thus reintegrated into the European community. ( The
aid was all economic; it did not include military aid until after the Korean
War.) Aside from helping to put Europe back on its feet, the Marshall Plan
led to the Schuman Plan, which in turn led to Euratom, then the Coal and
Iron Community and the Common Market, and pointed to what may yet evolve
into an economically and politically united Europe. In many ways, the Marshall
Plan satisfied both those who wanted our foreign policy to be generous
and idealistic and those who demanded realpolitik; it helped feed the starving
and shelter the homeless, and at the same time stopped the spread of communism
and put the European economy back on its feet. For further reading: