The Marshall Plan

Abstract

As so much has been written about the Marshall Plan, it is easy to lose sight of some of the basic events in its evolution. Because of this, this chapter places the Marshall Plan in its historical context, while considering the purpose and significance of the Marshall Plan. It discusses the content of Marshall’s speech that launched the aid programme, and analyzes the economic, political and strategic reasons for the Marshall Plan, arguing that it is helpful to see the Marshall Plan as the result of a multitude of foreign policy goals. It then goes on to describe in some detail the response of Western Europe and the Soviet Union to the Marshall Plan. The split between Western Europe and the Soviet Union over their attitudes towards Marshall Aid was to lay the foundations of the split within the left in Britain.The chapter then places the Marshall Plan in the frame-work of the developing cold war, and addresses the nature of the relationships between Britain and the US, and Britain and the Soviet Union.