Any relation?
Now he saw a crawling Continent. "Warfare had demolished factories and other industrial facilities throughout Europe," wrote G.S. Prentzas in his 2011 book, "The Marshall Plan." "More than half of housing in large cities had been destroyed. Thousands of bridges and countless miles of roads and railroad tracks had been ruined. ... Nearly 20 million faced starvation."
Then there was this SOS from Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister: "A vast, quivering mass of tormented, hungry, care-worn and bewildered human beings gape at the ruins of their cities and homes and scan the dark horizons for the approach of some new peril, tyranny or terror."
Marshall also saw the peril — namely the Soviet Union — and in his Harvard speech called for America to ride to the rescue: "It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace."
He made clear, added Stoler, that "politically, culturally, strategically, militarily, it's in America's interests to rebuild Europe."
The primary result of the Marshall Plan was unmasking European elites for the arrogant ingrates they truly are.
Unfortunately, we did a lousy job of keeping them as customers in need of our products.
“The Marshall Plan Led Europe Back From The Dead”
And the European Union will lead it back to ruin.
Much like myself, Marshall is a proud VMI alumni. As a cadet, I remember giving some German tourists a tour of VMI. In front of the George C. Marshall statue they became noticeably excited. I asked what they were saying and a woman explained, they’re saying “Thank you Marshall.”
Any relation?
Europe will die.
The Marshal plan made the assumption that Europeans and Americans shared common values and a common culture. That assumption may be very wrong today. If asked, Americans would take great pause before they again sacrificed blood and immense treasure to rescue modern Europe from its mistakes.
I had the high privilege of living in Gen. Marshall’s house, in Leesburg, Virginia, for seven years, from ‘95 to 2002. I learned a lot about the man. Truly his greatness was in:
• Selflessness.
• Modesty.
• Intelligence.
• Rock-solid integrity.
Too bad that the nation that suffered the most during the war, Poland, didn’t get to be a recipient.
The Marshal plan + American military might, just turned Europe into “Weekend and Bernie’s”. Only giving the impression that the place was not dead.
Leave these people to themselves, and Europe only looks for ever more creative ways of mass-murder, chaos, and self-inflicted suicide.
*ping* The comments here are depressing. Look at how self-deprecating so many Americans are of our history.
FTA: Marshall was a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1953.
Now you can get the peace prize for being a terrorist or supporter of terrorism like Arafat and obama.
It’s interesting, the mix of responses here. By way of the Marshall Plan, the United States ultimately safe-kept and guarded everything in Europe west of the Berlin Wall from the onslaught of Soviet communism. An epic feat not to be taken lightly.
Now, that’s not to say there weren’t doorways for Soviet influences to creep in and have their way. The European Union was created after all, as a sort of “Soviet Union lite” and its socialist, secularist value system created a moral vacuum leaving Europe open to much of the civilizational attacks we’ve been witnessing of late.
My relatives were direct beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan, and I’ve since lived in the former Soviet Union (Russia.) And it’s clear to this day that the “Marshall” side of the Berlin Wall was the “victory side” and better side to be on. I caution people against over-hyping and over-estimating the nonsense that Europe is all but destroyed and gone.
World War II, the Cold War, were not fought in vain. BUT talking and acting as if they were, is precisely the kind of lie which leaves Western Civilization vulnerable to attack.
The weapon against this very destruction is to recover what Europe lost: her faith, are pride, and it’s clear we Americans need to take ownership of the historical narrative too instead of being so self-deprecating.
We were on the right side of history.
The 20th Century left Europe broken, but not destroyed. And part of picking up the pieces means understanding what these wars were about and what we were fighting for in the first place. Otherwise, we leave it to revisionists to hijack the narrative in pursuit of their sinister agendas to undermine our place in the world.
“Make America Great Again” means “Proud Again” too.