Chapter 09: American Aid to Europe’s Recovery — Containing Communism, 1948 (Part I)

After World War II, Stalin turned the Soviet Union into an adversary of the United States. In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was eager to have Stalin enter the war against Japan. Stalin delayed until the very last moment; only after the United States had already dropped atomic bombs on Japan did the Soviet Union finally send troops into Northeast China to reap the spoils. After occupying Manchuria, the Soviets looted industrial equipment from the region, transferred weapons to the Chinese Communist forces, and directed the Communists in fighting the civil war, accelerating China’s communist takeover. Within just four years, the United States was forced to withdraw from China. Soviet communist power rapidly expanded across the Eastern Hemisphere and continued to wreak havoc on the world in the aftermath of World War II.

Less than three years after the war, in 1948, the Soviet Union suddenly blockaded West Berlin in an attempt to strangle the American-, British-, and French-controlled sectors of the city. President Truman immediately broke the blockade with a massive airlift. Only then did Americans clearly recognize Stalin’s true hostility toward the United States. Roosevelt’s decision to treat Stalin as an ally during World War II proved to be a strategic mistake.

Had Roosevelt seen through Stalin several years earlier, during the early stages of World War II, the Korean War might never have occurred. In 1950, Stalin encouraged Kim Il-sung to launch a war in an attempt to swallow South Korea in one stroke. South Korea was an ally of the United States, and the United States rose to its defense. By then, Stalin’s intention to confront the United States was obvious to all.

After World War II, an Iron Curtain descended across the European continent. All the ancient nations of Central and Eastern Europe fell behind it, including Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia. These famous cities and their surrounding populations were brought within the Soviet sphere of influence, not merely influenced by Moscow but, in many cases, directly controlled by it.

The United States responded by aiding Europe in order to contain communism. Washington paid close attention to developments in Europe. Britain warned of the communist threats facing Greece and Turkey, prompting President Truman to address Congress, declaring: “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

Truman requested that Congress appropriate $400 million to provide assistance to Greece and Turkey. A fierce debate erupted within the United States, but Congress ultimately approved Truman’s request. Truman moved swiftly to rescue Greece’s economy and rebuild its military. Before long, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their support for the Greek insurgents, the Greek Civil War came to an end, and Greece avoided becoming communist.

America’s plan for Europe’s reconstruction was the brainchild of George Kennan. Kennan argued that postwar peace arrangements should avoid repeating the mistakes of the Treaty of Versailles. The most important task, he believed, was not to punish Germany harshly but to restore it as a major power and make it the central state in a new balance of power on the European continent. He argued that the well-being of the Atlantic nations depended on a vibrant continental European system, and that without Germany’s economic strength, cultural influence, and international status, such a system could not exist. Therefore, the United States should help establish an independent and unified Germany and then organize a European federation centered on Germany, encompassing West European countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and France.

Through the Marshall Plan, the United States offered aid to all European countries. The Soviet Union and its allies refused to participate, while sixteen other nations welcomed American assistance. Between 1948 and 1952, the United States invested a total of $13 billion through cooperation with these countries. The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to help America’s European allies rebuild economies devastated by World War II. Its official name was the “European Recovery Program,” and it was named after its principal proponent, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall.

In the Long Telegram, George Kennan had predicted the emergence of a bipolar world order. The Marshall Plan became the core implementation of his new theory—the policy of containment toward the Soviet Union. It was designed to halt the further expansion of communist power in Europe. Truman once remarked that “without the Marshall Plan, Western Europe would have found it very difficult to avoid communist totalitarian rule.” Accompanied by political conditionality, the Marshall Plan exerted a clear restraining effect on the postwar rise of left-wing coalitions in Europe. The plan proved highly effective: agricultural output in recipient countries increased by 10 percent, industrial production rose by 35 percent, and industries such as steel saw even more dramatic growth. The Marshall Plan also produced significant political effects. With strong economic assistance, governments in France and Italy avoided falling under communist control.

At first, Stalin approached the aid plan with a mentality of “taking whatever could be taken,” showing what he described as “cautious interest.” He dispatched the Soviet foreign minister to Paris to meet with his British and French counterparts. Britain and France proposed that any country accepting aid would inevitably lose part of its economic sovereignty and would be required to participate in the construction of a unified European market—conditions fundamentally incompatible with the Soviet Union’s highly centralized planned economy. In the end, the Soviet Union chose not to join the Marshall Plan. Initially, the plan’s geopolitical significance was not fully apparent. Marshall himself stated: “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.” In reality, it was Stalin himself who chose to magnify the Marshall Plan’s geopolitical significance.