Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan, known officially following its enactment as the European Recovery Program (ERP), was the main plan of the United States for the reconstruction of Europe following World War II. The initiative was named for United States Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials including William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan.

Rejection by the Soviets

British foreign minister Ernest Bevin heard Marshall's speech on the radio and immediately contacted French foreign minister Georges Bidault to begin preparing a European response to the offer. The two agreed that it would be necessary to invite the Soviets as the other major allied power. Marshall's speech had explicitly included an invitation to the Soviets, feeling that excluding them would have been too clear a sign of distrust. However, the State Department officials knew that Stalin was almost certain not to participate, and that any plan that did send large amounts of aid to the Soviets was unlikely to be approved by Congress.

Related Topics:
Ernest Bevin - Georges Bidault

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Stalin was at first cautiously interested in the plan. Leninist doctrine states that as the capitalist economies began their final collapse they would, in desperation, seek to trade with the communist foes. Stalin felt that under these circumstances the Soviets would be able to dictate the terms of the aid, and he thus dispatched foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov to Paris to meet with Bevin and Bidault.{{ref|Stalin}} The British and French leadership shared the American lack of real interest in Soviet participation, and they presented Molotov with conditions that the Soviets could never accept. The most important of these was that every nation to join the plan would need to have its economic situation independently assessed, scrutiny the Soviets could not agree to. Bevin and Bidault also insisted that any aid be accompanied by the creation of a unified European economy, something incompatible with the strict Soviet command economy. Molotov thus left Paris, rejecting the plan.

Related Topics:
Leninist - Vyacheslav Molotov

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On July 12 a larger meeting was convened in Paris. Every nation of Europe was invited, with the exceptions of Spain, which remained out of World War II but sympathized with the Axis, and the small nations of Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and Liechtenstein. The Soviet Union was invited, but it was known it would refuse. The states of the future Eastern Bloc were invited, and Czechoslovakia and Poland agreed to attend. In one of the clearest signs of the Soviet control over the region, the Czechoslovak foreign minister, Jan Masaryk, was summoned to Moscow and berated by Stalin for thinking of joining the Marshall Plan. Stalin felt the Plan was a severe danger to the Soviet control of Eastern Europe, that economic integration with the West would allow them to escape Soviet domination. The Americans believed the same and did hope American economic aid could counter the growing Soviet influence. They were thus not greatly surprised when Czechoslovakian and Polish delegations were prevented from attending the meeting in Paris. The other Eastern European states immediately rejected the offer. Finland also did so, fearing the creation of any animosity with the Soviets.

Related Topics:
July 12 - Spain - Andorra - San Marino - Monaco - Liechtenstein - Eastern Bloc - Jan Masaryk - Finland

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