Marshall Plan



The largest recipient of Marshall's Plan money was the United Kingdom (~26%), followed by France (18%) and West Germany (11%); along with 15 other nations including Italy, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Turkey and Denmark which also go a lesser degree of help. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany and Poland. This angered some officials in Poland and the GDR. It was informal named after the then Secretary of State, George Marshall.

Stats

 * 1) Other short titles- The Marshall Plan, Economic Cooperation Act of 1948, International Children's Emergency Fund Assistance Act of 1948, Greek-Turkish Assistance Act of 1948 and China Aid Act of 1948
 * 2) Long title- An Act to promote world peace and the general welfare, national interest, and foreign policy of the United States through economic, financial, and other measures necessary to the maintenance of conditions abroad in which free institutions may survive and consistent with the maintenance of the strength and stability of the United States.
 * 3) Nicknames- Foreign Assistance Act of 1948
 * 4) Enacted by- the 80th United States Congress
 * 5) Effective- April 3, 1948

The background to the event


The fire-bombings were carried out against Hamburg in 1943, Dresden in 1945, and other German cities as part of the Allied Strategic bombing plan. It had made post war life in Germany near to impossible as the grim reaper harvested lives on a daily basis with starvation, cold, accidents and typhoid. Romania, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, the USSR and Czechoslovakia were also badly hit by either Allied or Nazi instigated destruction.

Berlin had suffered enormous damage in WW2 and its population had fallen from 4,300,000 to 2,800,000. Over 100,000 German workers had held a demonstration during a general strike in Western held Hamburg against food shortages and heating oil was dangerously running low in Soviet East Berlin during 1947. As this was happening Italy was struggling with a growing communist insurgency and Paris was hit by food riots.

Early on in the Ailed occupation of Germany The Ruhr Agreement was imposed on the Germans as a condition for permitting them to establish the Federal Republic of Germany France expanded the borders of the Saarland, after the Ruhr Germany's largest remaining source of coal, by adding parts of the Rhineland and there after detached it as a protectorate in 1947 until 1956, which it then treated like a colony with American connect.

German agricultural production was 83% of 1938 levels, industrial production was 88%, and exports only 59%. The British, Italians and French also suffered, but not so badly, while the USSR, the Netherlands and Poland were at death's door.

For years Britain had supported Greece, but was now near bankruptcy due to the Second World War and was thus forced to end all meaningful involvement in Greece. This is why Britain formally requested the United States take over its role in supporting Greece during the February of 1947. Yugoslavia and Bulgaria had also got plans to spread communism to Greece, conquer Albania (which Yugoslavia racily hated) and set up a Yugoslav puppet state in Greek Macedonia.

The Allied Control Council set the price for German coal at half what it cost to produce it in order to allow the German public to buy it more easily and for the Allies to cream off the profits from exports as a type of war reparation. As a result some the remaining mines and coal firms started to go bust. From May 1945 until September 1947 the US, UK, and France exported German coal for $10.50/tonne, while the world price hovered closer to $25–$30 per tonne. France, the UK and US thus swindling roughly $200,000,000 out of the German economy. In September 1947 the export price was raised but remained set at $5–$7 below world-market prices.

Heavy war damage, labour shortages, public misery, ill health, poverty and high national debts were holding back European growth and stabilisation which only helped foster anger, communism and  neo-fascism.

The Plan


The former US President Herbert Hoover had raised the points that killing 25,000,000 Germans in revenge, abolishing all industry, always looting it of anything of value or totally annexing it to one or more of it's neighbours was insane to say the least! He also pointed out that Europe needed German industry, especial that relating to the coal and steel industries during the March of 1947.

The currency reform in 1948 was headed by the the Allied military government and helped Germany to restore economic stability by encouraging production.

The Deutsche Mark, along with the Marshall Plan that propped up many western European nations, appeared to be a way of reviving the ruined German nation regardless of Soviet objections. Stalin considered setting up W. Berlin as a capitalist bastion in the Soviet zone a economic threat and a political provocation.

President Truman stated to his political opponents in the U.S. during crisis of the Greek Civil War of 1946–1949 that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they both urgently needed, they would inevitably fall to communism or be over run by their communist neighbours, with very grave consequences throughout the region. Both were also be treated equally despite Greece being in more need of help since he id not want to inflame Greco-Turkish rivalries either. The Republicans who controlled Congress and agreed to send $400 million in American money, but no military forces or material aid, to the region.

The dismantling of German industry finally ended in in 1949 when Konrad Adenauer wrote to the Allies requesting that it end saying that economic growth was being held back by looting, Ailed plundering, poverty and public misery.

The Britsh and French agreed to the Marshall Plan instantly, whilst the USSR rejected it instantly.

The results
The USA had thus

Much of the Marshall Plan aid would be used by the Western Europeans to buy manufactured goods and raw materials from the United States and Canada, who had only minimal losses win WW2.

The Berlin airlift the increased the perception among many Europeans that the Soviets posed a new danger, helping to prompt the entry into NATO of Portugal (fascist), Iceland (weak), Italy (communist insurgency), Denmark (weak) and Norway (bordered the USSR). the issues surrounding the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 also disturbed the W. Germany, the UK and the USA. The Icelandic NATO riot of March 30, 1949 was the only majoor public protest over NATO at the time. Greece and Turkey the military alliance joined NATO in 1952 since it guaranteed their protection from communist invasion and terrorism. The post-war animosities between Germans and the occupying nations of Britain, France and the United States, were greatly reduced by the airlift out of a mixture of common interests, shared values and mutual respect in the face of Soviet aggression.

Links

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
 * https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/marshall-plan
 * http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/366654/Marshall-Plan
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir2/trumandoctrineandmarshallplanrev1.shtml
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_anti-NATO_riot_in_Iceland
 * http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26410922
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_plans_for_German_industry_after_World_War_II