Marshall plan

As World War II came to a close, the fog of war lifted revealing a devastated and vulnerable Europe. The two fronts of the War had left the infrastructure and economy of Europe in ruins. Many factories were destroyed by bombs or were looted during the chaos. People had lost homes and lived in refugee camps. The Winter of 1946-1947 was especially hard on Europe increasing the difficulty to transport supplies by boat. In 1947, US secretary of State George Marshall,




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devised a plan to help the war torn Europe. He claimed the help was not for any specific country but to fight against poverty, hunger and chaos. Over four years, 1947 to 1951, the Marshall plan gave $13,000,000,000.00 in aid to Europe. Due to the main war ravaging Britain, France, and Italy, they received the largest amounts of aid.



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The plan worked and by 1952, West Europe was strong. This plan also helped the US policy of containment as communism, which could have taken over post-war Europe, was no longer attractive.



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The plan, however, did not help all of those torn by war but simply the European countries.

By Tyler and Katie