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THE MAKING OF A NATON - July 4, 2002: Marshall Plan
By David Jarmul
VOICE 1:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(Theme)
Throughout history, power passes from one nation to another. Persia, for example, was the world's most powerful
nation at the time of Alexander the Great. Rome became a great power under Julius Caesar. And France was so
under Napoleon.
Through the middle of the twentieth century, Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. Britain,
however, suffered terribly during World War Two. And, after the war, power passed to the United States.
VOICE 2:
One can almost name the day when this happened. It was February twenty-first, nineteen-forty-seven. Officials at
the British Embassy in Washington called the American State Department. They had two messages from their
government.
The first was about Greece. The situation there was critical. Greece had been occupied by Germany during the
war. Now it was split by a bitter civil war. On one side of the fighting was the royal family supported by Britain.
On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist during nineteen-forty-four and nineteen-fortyfive.
A few years later, Britain could no longer help. It needed all its strength to rebuild from the world war. So,
on that February day in nineteen-forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for
Greece.
VOICE 1:
Britain's second message that day was about Turkey. Turkey was stronger than Greece. But it, too, might become
communist unless it received outside help.
Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across eastern
Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to
help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat.
Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world. The United States
was ready to accept its new position.
VOICE 2:
For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse. The two
countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War.
But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people.
The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and eastern Europe. It
wanted to extend its own influence, instead. So, after the war, it forced the establishment of communist
governments in a number of countries. In Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, it sent troops to make sure its
political demands were met.
Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, spoke about the situation in a
speech at a college in the American state of Missouri. Churchill warned that the Soviet
Union was trying to expand its power. He described it as an "iron curtain" falling across
the middle of Europe. The Iron Curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a
democratic west.
VOICE 1:
The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China. China was a
divided nation at the end of World War Two. The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang
Kai-shek controlled the southwest part of the country. Communist forces under Mao
Tse-Tung controlled the north. Soviet leader Josef Stalin
tries to block a ball labeled
''Marshall Plan'' from a
Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be basket labeled ''European
Recovery'' in this Americanable to unite China. cartoon by Edwin Marcus.
(Image - Library of
VOICE 2: Congress)
Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists. But Mao and his forces used the
people's growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support. Slowly, they began to win battles and
capture arms.
Early in nineteen-forty-nine, communist forces took control of Beijing and Tientsin. Then they captured
Shanghai and Canton. By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of
Taiwan.
VOICE 1:
The fall of the Nationalist government in China caused a bitter political debate in America. Some critics of the
Truman administration charged that the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists.
The Truman administration rejected the charges. It said Chiang caused his own defeat by failing to reform and
win the support of the Chinese people. Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the defeat this way:
"Nothing that the United States did, or could have done, within the limits of its powers, could have changed the
result. It was the product of forces within China. It was the product of forces which the United States tried to
influence, but could not."
VOICE 2:
The United States was more successful in its policies toward Europe.
The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey caused President Truman to speak to the
Congress. He said, "I believe it must be our policy to support free people who are fighting attempted overthrow
by armed minorities or outside pressures."
Truman called on the Congress to give him four-hundred-million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey. After a
brief but intense national debate, the Congress agreed. Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek
economy and reorganize the Greek army. Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to
Greek rebels. the Civil War in Greece ended.
VOICE 1:
American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the "Truman doctrine." The
goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world.
Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism. But he also believed it was equally
important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves.
VOICE 2:
Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two. There were severe shortages of
food and fuel. Crops were destroyed. Many Europeans were beginning to look to the
communists -- to anybody --to save them.
This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the
economies of Europe.
Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the idea. It soon became known as the
"Marshall Plan."
VOICE 1:
President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan. People were
starving, he said. There had been food riots in France and Italy. People were cold.
There was not enough fuel. And people were sick. Tuberculosis was breaking out.
"Something had to be done," Truman said later. "The British had no money. They
were pulling out of Greece and Turkey. They could not help. The United States had
to do it, had to do it all."
VOICE 2:
Marshall Plan aid was offered to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused help. Sixteen
other countries, however, welcomed the aid.
From nineteen-forty-eight to nineteen-fifty-two, the economic cooperation administration of the Marshall Plan
worked with these countries. It spent thirteen thousand-million dollars.
The plan worked. Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent. Overall industrial
production increased by thirty-five percent. Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more.
There were political results, too. Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the
governments in France and Italy.
Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the
Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few people could argue that the plan was one of the most successful
international economic programs in history.
(Theme)
VOICE 1:
You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of
America. Your narrators have been Rich Kleinfeldt and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by David Jarmul.
Join us again next week at this same time for another program about the history of the United States.
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