Against Hunger, Poverty, Desperation and Chaos

In the spring of 1947 Europe was two years past the war and sliding backward. Cities were short of bread and coal, and the money to buy them was running out. Secretary of State George C. Marshall asked Americans to help rebuild the whole continent, allies and former enemies alike. Congress said yes. Within four years Europe was out-producing its prewar self.

1. 27 May 1947 · Washington

   Millions are slowly starving

   Under Secretary of State Will Clayton, back from Europe, puts it bluntly in a memo. Europe is steadily deteriorating. Millions of people in the cities are slowly starving. Without prompt and substantial aid from the United States, he writes, disintegration will overwhelm Europe. His prescription: a grant of $6 to $7 billion worth of goods a year for three years, chiefly coal, food, cotton and shipping.

2. 5 June 1947 · Harvard Yard

   The speech

   Marshall receives an honorary degree at Harvard’s commencement in the morning. That afternoon he speaks to about 15,000 people. In roughly ten minutes he lays out the crisis: farmers keeping their grain, cities short of food and fuel, governments spending their foreign money just to eat. He names no figure. He asks Europe to draw up its own program and promises American support for it.

   Marshall, departing from his textThe whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment.
3. 12 July 1947 · Paris

   Europe answers

   The Soviet Union walks out of the preliminary talks on 2 July, and its satellites stay away. Sixteen nations come anyway. In Paris they form the Committee of European Economic Co-operation to count what Europe needs and what it can do for itself. In September the committee delivers its report: a four-year program to raise production, steady currencies and work together.

4. 19 December 1947 · Washington

   The bill goes to Congress

   Truman sends Congress a message asking for a four-and-a-quarter-year program of aid to 16 nations. The Republican majority was elected on tax cuts and has to be won over. The Senate holds 30 days of hearings with nearly 100 government witnesses. To carry Europe through the winter, Congress first passes $522 million in interim aid for France, Italy and Austria.

5. 1 March 1948 · Senate chamber

   Vandenberg takes the floor

   Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, the Republican chairman of Foreign Relations, opens the debate. He calls the bill the product of more intensive study by more devoted minds than he has seen in twenty years in Congress. Marshall had spent so many hours with him that he joked they could not have gotten closer unless one sat in the other’s lap. On 13 March the Senate passes it, 69 to 17.

   Vandenberg to the SenateIn the name of peace, stability, and freedom it deserves prompt passage.
6. 3 April 1948 · The White House

   Truman signs

   The House has passed it 329 to 74. With Vandenberg standing behind him, Truman signs the Economic Cooperation Act, which authorizes $5.3 billion for the first year of European recovery. He calls the program perhaps the greatest venture in constructive statesmanship that any nation has undertaken. It has been ten months since Harvard.

   Truman, on signingFew Presidents have had the opportunity to sign legislation of such importance.
7. 9 April 1948 · Oval Office

   A businessman takes charge

   Congress wanted a Republican and a businessman to run the money. Truman picks Paul G. Hoffman, president of the Studebaker Corporation, and Chief Justice Fred Vinson swears him in six days after the signing. Averell Harriman goes to Paris as the special representative in Europe, with a staff of 600. Historians judge Hoffman a particularly talented administrator and promoter of the program.

   

8. 10 May 1948 · Bordeaux

   The first ship reaches France

   The freighter John H. Quick ties up at Bordeaux. She sailed from Galveston on 17 April loaded with American wheat, the first ship to bring Marshall Plan supplies to France. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery speaks at a ceremony on the dock. Premier Robert Schuman goes on the radio to tell France that American aid has largely saved the bread ration for the rest of the year.

9. 1948–1951 · Western Europe

   Europe goes back to work

   Ships leave American ports with wheat, coal, cotton, tractors and machine tools. Europe set itself a goal of raising industrial output 30 percent above prewar. By the end of 1951 it is 35 percent above. Steel reaches 60 million tons a year, beating a goal of 55 million. In West Germany, one new home in five built since 1948 was built with Marshall Plan help.