![]() At the present time, it is threatened with breakdown. This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization. The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life. There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious. But even given a more prompt solution of these difficult problems, the rehabilitation of the economic structure of Europe quite evidently will require a much longer time and greater effort than had been foreseen. Recovery has been seriously retarded by the fact that 2 years after the close of hostilities a peace settlement with Germany and Austria has not been agreed upon. The breakdown of the business structure of Europe during the war was complete. In many countries, confidence in the local currency has been severely shaken. Long-standing commercial ties, private institutions, banks, insurance companies, and shipping companies disappeared, through the loss of capital, absorption through nationalization, or by simple destruction. Under the arbitrary and destructive Nazi rule, virtually every possible enterprise was geared into the German war machine. Machinery has fallen into disrepair or is entirely obsolete. ![]() The feverish maintenance of the war effort engulfed all aspects of national economics. For the past 10 years, conditions have been highly abnormal. In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe the physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines, and railroads was correctly estimated, but it has become obvious during recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy. Furthermore, the people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reaction of the long-suffering peoples, and the effect of those reactions on their governments in connection with our efforts to promote peace in the world. I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. That must be apparent to all intelligent people. I need not tell you gentlemen that the world situation is very serious. Secretary of State George Marshall's Speech (the transcript of the European Recovery Act/Marshall Plan follows) Congress’s approval of the Marshall Plan signaled an extension of the bipartisanship of World War II into the postwar years. This aid provided much needed capital and materials that enabled Europeans to rebuild the continent’s economy.įor the United States, the Marshall Plan provided markets for American goods, created reliable trading partners, and supported the development of stable democratic governments in Western Europe. Over the next four years, Congress appropriated $13.3 billion for European recovery. Congress overwhelmingly passed the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948, and on April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the act that became known as the Marshall Plan. ![]() On December 19, 1947, President Harry Truman sent Congress a message that followed Marshall’s ideas to provide economic aid to Europe. ![]() To meet this emergency, Secretary of State George Marshall proposed in a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, that European nations create a plan for their economic reconstruction and that the United States provide economic assistance. In the two years after the war, the Soviet Union’s control of Eastern Europe and the vulnerability of Western European countries to Soviet expansionism heightened the sense of crisis. When World War II ended in 1945, Europe lay in ruins: its cities were shattered its economies were devastated its people faced famine. ![]()
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