In this landmark, character-driven history, Greg Behrman tells the
story of the Marshall Plan, the unprecedented and audacious policy
through which America helped rebuild World War II-ravaged Western
Europe. With nuanced, vivid prose, Behrman recreates the story of a
unique American enterprise that was at once strategic, altruistic
and stunningly effective, and of a time when America stood as a
beacon of generosity and moral leadership.
When World War II ended in Europe, the continent lay in tatters.
Tens of millions of people had been killed. Ancient cities had been
demolished. The economic, financial and commercial foundations of
Europe were in shambles. Western Europe's Communist parties --
feeding off people's want and despair -- were flourishing as, to
the east, Stalin's Soviet Union emerged as the sole superpower on
the continent.
The Marshall Plan was a four-year, $13 billion (more than $100
billion in today's dollars) plan to provide assistance for Europe's
economic recovery. More than an aid program, it sought to modernize
Western Europe's economies and launch them on a path to prosperity
and integration; to restore Western Europe's faith in democracy and
capitalism; to enmesh the region firmly in a Western economic
association and eventually a military alliance. It was the linchpin
of America's strategy to meet the Soviet threat. It helped to
trigger the Cold War and, eventually, to win it.
Through detailed and exhaustive research, Behrman brings this
vital and dramatic epoch to life and animates the personalities
that shaped it. The narrative follows the six extraordinary
American statesmen -- George Marshall, Will Clayton, Arthur
Vandenberg, Richard Bissell, Paul Hoffman and W. Averell Harriman
-- who devised and implemented the Plan, as well as some of the
century's most important personalities -- Winston Churchill, Josef
Stalin, Joseph McCarthy -- who are also central players in the
drama told here.
More than a humanitarian endeavor, the Marshall Plan was one of
the most effective foreign policies in all of American history, in
large part because, as Behrman writes, it was born and executed in
a time when American "foreign policy was defined by its national
interests and the very best of ideals."
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