Marshall Plan still at work in Germany
Tue Oct 12, 9:40 AM ET Top Stories - Chicago Tribune
By Tom Hundley Tribune foreign correspondent
This is a story about your tax dollars at work–or, more accurately, your grandparents’ tax dollars.
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On June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined a bold plan to rebuild the war-shattered economies of Europe, including those of nations that had so recently fought against the U.S.
At first, the Marshall Plan, as it was soon to be called, got a cool reception. According to historian Curt Tarnoff, the country’s mood was turning isolationist, Congress was dominated by budget-cutters and President Harry Truman was facing a tough election.
Giving money to Germany struck some as overly generous. Many Americans preferred the Morgenthau Plan. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau proposed stripping Germany of all its industry and transforming it into a vast farm.
But Truman went ahead with the Marshall Plan, and over the next four years the United States provided $13.3 billion (about $90 billion in today’s dollars) in economic aid to 16 European nations.
The bulk of it went to Britain, France and Italy. Germany, which got $1.39 billion, was the fourth-largest recipient. The offer of aid also was extended to Russia and its Eastern European satellites but was rejected on ideological grounds.
These days the Marshall Plan is widely revered as the wisest and most successful foreign policy initiative undertaken by any U.S. administration.
A little-known footnote is that even though the Marshall Plan formally expired in 1952, its dollars are still hard at work in Germ