Iron Curtain.
East versus West.
Communism confronts capitalism.
Bad guys and good guys.
How do you avoid conflict
when it gets really personal?
It would take more than money to revive the West.
Britain bankrupt. Germany in shambles.
Both France and Italy collapsed socially and politically.
There needed to be a strategy directing the funding.
Certainly people needed access to food and coal now,
but industry and transportation also needed to be
quickly revived. Along the way, a measure of
success would give political institutions
badly needed credibility.
Truman entrusted the State Department to handle
foreign policy because George Marshall
was his Secretary of State.
What the President got from him was
an economic strategy for Europe that would
come to be known as the Marshall Plan.
Uncle Sam was glad to give you money right now...
so long as you believed in America's vision.
Not on your life.
Stalin counted on America bringing the boys home
once the war ended. This Marshall Plan popped
that notion. America would make policy in Europe with
its money as lure. Yankee influence would be political
as well as economic.
Here was a clear challenge to Stalin's leadership.
He could not afford this persistent and growing threat
to his Eastern Europe alliance.
You can't have economic security without providing
the means to defend it. With American aid came
NATO, the transatlantic military alliance between
Western Europe and the United States.
Its reach would increase over the coming years.
Looking at the map Stalin had to wonder:
Who dropped the ball?
Europe today is what George Marshall had in mind.
There was no quick, easy plan to get here.
Diligence helped. Having the right people mattered.
Luck. A good amount required.
It's never easy.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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