The Truman Doctrine began with Greece, but was later invoked in the Berlin Airlift and other interventionist and anti-communist activities on the part of the United States. "The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries," declared Truman in 1947, advocating his famous doctrine for the first time. (the Truman Doctrine, 1947) The Marshall Plan was not simply adopted for humanitarian reasons. At the time, the United States rightly feared that communism, given the terrible economic conditions of the time, could move westward and overtake a dispirited and desperate populace, much as Nazi German forces over swept the Weimar government during the German depression of the 1930s and the German humiliation after World War I, as imposed by the winning powers. Thus, the European...
The plan allowed money to be used to buy goods from the United States. The goods were shipped across the Atlantic on American merchant vessels. Yet despite or because of this self-interest, the Marshall Plan and the Truman doctrine proved feasible, and by 1953, after the United States had pumped in $13 billion, and Europe was standing on its feet again and more resistant to communist influences from within and abroad.
The economic pragmatism that the Marshall Plan demonstrates for the United States is not necessarily as clearly observable form a basic look at history as is the containment of communism. The decades following World War II and the implementation of the Marshall Plan were definitely economically successful fro Europe and for the United States, but how this relates directly to the Marshall Plan and not simply to the end of
Thus, paramount American interests were to be presented as being really the interests of the Europeans themselves. It would be a situation wherein America was simply helping along people who were, at present, unable to adequately help themselves. The concept had much in common with the goals of many charity or self-help organizations - people grow and are transformed by learning to help themselves. They are given assistance so as
The military dictatorship simply favored specific economic interests, notably large tourist enterprises, urban real estate and construction, and shipowners. The basic weaknesses of the Greek economy, including social inequities and the lack of competitiveness in the country's new manufacturing sector, remained untreated. They would resurface in acute form with the world economic crisis of the early 1970s (Postwar Recovery (http://greece.russiansabroad.com/country_page.aspx?page=146)." The initial reaction by Greek politicians was not to accept
The United States offered up to $20 billion for relief, but only if the European nations could unite and draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid (Marshall1 pp). For the first time in history, they would have to cooperate with each other and act as a single economic unit (Marshall1 pp). Although Marshall also offered aid to the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern
The $13.3 billion provided by the United States definitely contributed to European recovery (Introduction pp). World War II had devastated much of the continent, leaving the local economies in ruin and millions homeless (Marshall pp). Moreover, the destruction of agriculture had led to conditions of starvation in many areas of the continent (Marshall pp). Many of the greatest cities were in ruins, others were severely damaged, and of particular concern was
Europe faced after WWII and the fall of communism in 1991: How has Europe managed the transition away from communism? After World War II, Europe was devastated physically and economically from the conflict in a manner far different from the United States. The U.S. had not seen war on its soil. Britain, in contrast, had been razed by the blitz, and its far-flung empire was crumbling. France had likewise been
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