Marshall Plan - Purchase of European Sovereignty

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Exactly 70 years ago, the US Congress approved and President Truman signed the famous Marshall Plan. Within the framework of this program, the countries of Western Europe received colossal funds from America free of charge. But Washington's unprecedented generosity had its reasons. In fact, Europe was given a bribe to give up sovereignty. Otherwise, she threatened to withdraw into the sphere of influence of the USSR.

The economic situation in Europe in the second half of the 1940s was extremely difficult. In countries that took over the battles of World War II, entire cities were destroyed, infrastructure, including transport, was seriously damaged. The total industrial production in Europe was 88% of the pre-war level.

To understand the scale of the decline, one must take into account that the potential was assessed, including of non-belligerent countries and Britain, where production grew continuously during the war years, and as a result, the industry remained on a "war track" and required conversion.

Agriculture (again, according to generalized estimates and taking into account non-belligerent countries) lost 15-20% of the pre-war level, but the situation was extremely uneven. The population of Germany, for example, was starving.

Unemployment, poverty, devastation, and banditry flourished. The general feeling of hopelessness grew stronger.

In these conditions, the United States went to provide the countries of Western Europe unparalleled and gratuitous financial assistance. But its distribution looked strange: out of 12.4 billion dollars over 4 years of the Marshall Plan, almost 3 billion went to Britain, 2, 5 - France, 1, 3 - Italy. This makes us take a closer look not so much at the economic as at the political situation in these three countries.

A ghost roams Europe

In July 1945, Winston Churchill lost the election, losing the majority to Labor and their leader Clement Attlee. During the election campaign, the Conservatives focused mainly on their military victories, while their opponents talked about the future. Attlee’s election program was called “Let's look the future in the face”. She promised to create in Great Britain a "welfare state" in accordance with the ideas of democratic socialism.

The Laborites advocated the preservation of the state control over the economy introduced in wartime, the nationalization of the most important branches of industry, transport and the Bank of England, as well as strengthening the alliance with the USSR … As a result, they won a majority in the House of Commons, formed a government and tried to implement their election plans, faced with opposition from the conservative House of Lords. However, until 1947 Attlee managed to nationalize, for example, rail transport, electricity and coal..

Postwar France was not ruled by Labor, but the local Communist Party had a major influence on politics. The Resistance Movement operated and controlled with the active participation of the PCF, communists played a pivotal role in the 1944 Paris uprising, many world celebrities joined the Communist Party in those years, including Pablo Picasso. After the liberation of France, the communists entered de Gaulle's government, and by the end of 1945 the number of members of the PCF was more than half a million people. In the October elections to the National Assembly of the same year, the communists won first place, 26.2% of the vote and the largest faction. At the same time, the second place and the result of 23.4% went to the socialists of the French section of the Labor International.

In Italy, the Communist Party played a leading role in the anti-fascist Committee for National Liberation, and in 1944-1945 it became the largest political party in the country - its number reached almost two million members. As in the case of France, representatives of the ICP entered the post-war government. And in the parliamentary elections in 1948, they received more than 30% of the votes.

In Yalta, the victorious countries, of course, agreed on the division of spheres of influence. Only the western sphere of influence was leaving by itself from under Anglo-Saxon control and clearly gravitated towards the Soviet Union. So great was the prestige of the USSR and the Communist Party that they endured total war on their shoulders and liberated Europe from fascism.

This was a serious threat, which Churchill spoke bluntly about in Fulton, launching the Cold War.

It is not without reason that our "foreign partners" have spent 70 years cleaning these pages of history from the memory of Europeans and turning over their ideas about the past so that the EU will equalize the communist and fascist ideologies. The Marshall Plan was the first step in this direction.

How the European Union was born

At first glance, the Marshall Plan offered financial assistance to Western European countries, taking into account the interests of the United States itself. That is, it was a variant of mutually beneficial economic cooperation. This is exactly what US Secretary of State George Marshall stated in his speech at Harvard University on July 5, 1947. Describing the situation in Europe, he said:

“Farmers have always produced food in order to exchange it for the inhabitants of the cities for other necessities of life. This division of labor is the foundation of modern civilization. It is currently under threat. Cities and urban industries do not produce the goods they need to exchange for food for the farmers. There is a huge shortage of raw materials and fuel. There are not enough cars, as I said, or they are completely worn out. Farmers cannot find the goods they need on sale. Meanwhile, people in cities need food and fuel, in some areas of Europe, the phantom of hunger rises … Therefore, governments are forced to use their budget money and loans to buy essential goods abroad … The truth is that for the next three or four years Europe's needs for foreign food and other essential products - mainly from America - so much exceed its current paying capacity that she needs to be provided with significant additional assistance, or she will face a very serious exacerbation of the situation in the economic, social and political areas."

That is, the countries of Europe needed to be given money so that they could buy goods from America. The classic policy that created jobs in the United States and ultimately get the money back.

Less than a year later, on April 3, 1948, the United States passed the Law on the Rendering of Economic Aid to Foreign Countries, defining the concrete implementation of the Marshall Plan. In accordance with this law, in each country participating in the plan was assigned a special mission to identify needs and allocate money … A special representative coordinating the work of all missions is located in Paris.

The economic magazine United States News and World Report happily wrote in 1948: “ The administrator for the implementation of this program … will be able, for example, to tell France whether railways need to be rehabilitated or motorways improved … He will be able to decide whether the farms should be mechanized …”and so on.

At the same time, the law required the countries participating in the Plan to carry out "financial and currency measures necessary to stabilize monetary circulation", balance the budget as soon as possible and remove customs barriersto "encourage and facilitate the expansion of the exchange of goods and services among themselves."

Thus, the "Marshall Plan" created an economic bloc from the countries of Western Europe. Which after 1951 and the adoption of the law "On mutual security" began to form as a military bloc.

On July 12, 1947, representatives of 16 Western European countries gathered in Paris to discuss the Marshall Plan. Subsequently, on the basis of the Paris Conference, a Committee on Economic Cooperation was established to coordinate efforts to implement the Plan. And already out of it the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has grown. That is, ultimately, the European Union.

“The law“On rendering assistance to foreign states”has no precedent in world legal practice: it is a law adopted by the legislative body of one country, but valid for other, formally sovereign states,” wrote the USSR on this matter.

The price of sovereignty

One of the conditions for joining the Marshall Plan was withdrawal of communists from the cabinet of ministers … Both in France and in Italy, representatives of the Communist Parties were forced to leave the government. But the political pressure from the United States was not limited to this.

Under US law of April 3, 1948, the Marshall Plan Administrator has been authorized to terminate a country-specific programif, in his opinion, this country “does not fulfill the agreements it has signed”. There was also such a clause: the administrator has the right to stop providing assistance at any time if it "no longer meets the national interests of the United States."

In this way , economic aid was openly declared as a tool for promoting American policy in Western Europe … On one side of the balance lay the enormous sums of money so needed for ruined economies; on the other, the need to follow in the mainstream of US interests under the strict supervision of American administrators.

In 1948, a powerful anti-communist campaign was launched in Italy, in which many political and social forces, including the church, were involved. They received direct support from the US Embassy, which is not surprising - on the eve of the elections to the Italian parliament, Marshall himself bluntly stated that in the event of the victory of the communists, financial aid for the country will be curtailed. The choice between money and democracy has become more concrete than ever.

Was there an alternative to the Marshall Plan?

There is no alternative to the Marshall Plan for rebuilding war-torn economies to this day.

The countries of Eastern Europe went through this difficult period relying on a different economic system. The Francoist Spain, which was not included in the American plan, also independently carried out post-war reconstruction.

Undoubtedly, serious financial support smoothed out many sharp corners for Western Europe and made it possible to reach high living standards in less time … But the cost of these accomplishments was the actual transformation of Western European countries into American dominions.