On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. Over the next four years, Congress appropriated $13.3 billion for European recovery. This aid provided much needed capital and materials that enabled Europeans to rebuild the continent’s economy.

Administration and Congress worked together to formulate the European Recovery Program, which eventually provided roughly $13.3 billion ($143 billion in 2017 dollars) of assistance to 16 countries. While, in some cases, a direct connection can be drawn between American assistance and a positive outcome, for the most part, the Marshall Plan may be viewed best as a stimulus that set off a chain of events leading to a range of accomplishments. At the completion of the Marshall Plan period, European agricultural and industrial production were markedly higher, the balance of trade and related “dollar gap” much improved, and significant steps had been taken toward trade liberalization and economic integration.

The Marshall Plan represented ... a domestic U.S. political success. Announced on June 5, 1947 ... this famous initiative—which offered assistance to help European nations recover from the massive infrastructural and economic damage wrought by World War II ... All told, the U.S. provided $13.3 billion (about $140 billion in 2017 dollars) in assistance between 1948 and 1951 to 16 Western European countries ... Historians have generally agreed that the Marshall Plan contributed to reviving the Western European economies by controlling inflation, reviving trade and restoring production. It also helped rebuild infrastructure through the local currency counterpart funds.

The Marshall Plan was a massive commitment to European recovery after World War II ... Congress passed the plan on March 13, 1948, allocating nearly $13 billion in foreign aid over a four-year period. Many historians, however, agree that the Plan was successful in restoring agricultural and industrial production and some level of self-sufficiency in European nations as well as preventing the implementation of damaging austerity measures to counteract declining economic conditions.

Fanned by the fear of Communist expansion and the rapid deterioration of European economies in the winter of 1946–1947, Congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act in March 1948 and approved funding that would eventually rise to over $12 billion for the rebuilding of Western Europe. The Marshall Plan, as the program was called, was an ambitious attempt to stimulate European economic recovery. In all, the United States provided more than $13 billion in assistance to 16 European countries.

The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to aid in the economic recovery of nations after World War II and secure US geopolitical influence over Western Europe. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3, 1948, granting $5 billion in aid to 16 European nations. During the four years that the plan was in effect, the United States donated $17 billion ... in economic and technical assistance to help the recovery of the European countries that joined the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation.

The Marshall Plan was a U.S. aid program for 16 Western European countries between 1948 and 1952. In the period from 1948 to 1953, Austria received USD 962 million from the United States of America as part of the European Recovery Program (“Marshall Plan”), which corresponds to around USD 9.5 billion today. Austria’s share of the total Marshall Plan volume of around USD 13 billion (currently USD 129 billion) was 7.4%.

Today, thanks primarily to their own efforts, the people of Western Europe, together with our help, have rebuilt the economies of their countries and have developed a new spirit of confidence in themselves and in their free institutions. By working together, economic recovery has been substantially achieved. ON THIS third anniversary, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate you who have carried out so well the aims of the European recovery program.

Although the program anticipated total aid amounting to about $17 billion, the Administration bill, as introduced by Representative Charles Eaton, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, in early 1948 (H.R. 4840) provided an authorization of $6.8 billion for the first 15 months. … Funds Available April 3, 1948, to June 30, 1951: Direct appropriations totaled 10,902.4 million; the total funds available for the European Recovery Program in this period amounted to 12,534.9 million dollars. As of June 30, 1949, $972.3 million of U.S. aid had been in the form of loans, while $4.948 billion was in the form of grants.

A year later, the Truman Administration expanded its efforts in Europe with the European Recovery Program, also known as the Marshall Plan after its creator, Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Accordingly, the plan offered financial assistance to all European countries, including the Soviet Union; it also allowed the recipient nations to determine the assistance that they needed. Between 1948 and 1951, the program distributed nearly 13 billion dollars in Europe, proving instrumental in the continent’s rapid economic recovery.

The Marshall Plan revitalized postwar Europe, blunted Soviet influence in Western Europe, encouraged intra-European cooperation, and cemented the United States' leadership of the transatlantic alliance. ... From 1948 to 1951, the United States provided sixteen countries in Western Europe $13.2 billion in assistance ... to buy food and goods and to invest in their infrastructure and industry.

The reconstruction of Western Europe required the abolition of the command economy and the liberalisation of prices and wages; the elimination of the dollar shortage to enable countries ravaged by war to import the capital goods necessary to rebuild their infrastructure and restock their factories; the restoration of the European division of labour; and international cooperation to resolve the German question and remobilise German industry. These prerequisites were impossible to achieve without constructive American involvement in the rebuilding of the post-war order. It was the precise aim of the Marshall Plan to mobilise German industrial might for European reconstruction.

At the outset, the Europeans requested $22 billion in aid. President Truman countered the proposal with $17 billion for Congressional approval. … Table 2 shows the distribution of aid by commodities purchased from ERP funds delivered to recipient countries. Total for all countries: $13,325.80 million; Grants: $11,820.70 million; Loans: $1,505.10 million. Moreover, aid appropriation was in the context of a USD GDP of $258 billion in 1948, in excess of $12 billion in U.S. aid to Europe and counted separately from the Marshall Plan.

Between 1948 and 1952, the US distributed approximately 13.3 billion US dollars between the non-communist states of Western Europe, including Greece and Turkey. The share of the aid per country, based on the accumulative total, is as follows: United Kingdom: 23.99%; France: 20.41%; Italy: 11.35%; West Germany: 10.46%; Netherlands: 8.15%; Greece: 5.32%; Austria: 5.10%; Belgium and Luxembourg: 4.20%; European Payments Union and other regional aid: 3.06%; Denmark: 2.05%; Turkey: 1.69%; Norway: 1.69%; Ireland: 1.11%; Sweden: 0.80%; Portugal: 0.38%; Iceland: 0.22%.

In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall grew increasingly concerned about the situation in Europe. He assembled a team of experts to develop ideas for helping European nations recover from World War II. In his speech, Marshall pointed out that Europe was going to need help over the long term and laid out ideas for how the United States might deliver it: it would be a European plan funded by the United States. After multiple hearings and many behind-the-scenes meetings, the bill authorizing the European Recovery Program passed Congress in March 1948 and was signed by President Truman in April, only 10 months after Marshall’s speech at Harvard. It was a herculean effort, and it saved Western Europe.

On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed into law the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948, better known as the Marshall Plan. Named after its main proponent, Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the law authorized one of the largest foreign aid programs in history. From 1948 to 1951, the United States provided sixteen countries in Western Europe $13.2 billion in assistance ... The Marshall Plan jump-started Western Europe’s economic recovery, helped democratic governments weather difficult economic times, and blunted Soviet influence.

Pays freight subsidies for 16.8 million private voluntary relief packages from Americans to Europe. Funds building of a new wharf in North Borneo to help that British colony export vitally needed rubber. Assists in building railroads and water systems in French North Africa. Operations under the act are to be terminated on June 30, 1952, or prior thereto if the two Houses of Congress shall pass a resolution declaring that such operations should be terminated.

America gave over $13 billion to help Western Europe rebuild from 1948 to 1952. The Marshall Plan sent $13 billion in aid to Western Europe from 1948 to 1951, turning shattered economies into thriving ones. Money flowed through specific channels: direct payments for imports like food and fuel, equipment to rebuild factories, technical help for modernizing industries, and support for transport and communications.

In April 1948, Harry Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, through which the United States would expend an unprecedented $12 billion ... recovery. First, Marshall Plan aid might have quickened the pace of private investment. Second, it might have supported public investment in infrastructure. Third, it might have eliminated bottlenecks.

Recognizing Europe’s great need and seeing that a European recovery was in the world’s best interest, Americans stepped up to help friends and former foes alike. To help address the European food shortages, the U.S. exported a full one-sixth of its agricultural production in 1945-46 to Europe. Truman and Marshall shepherded a plan through Congress for U.S. economic assistance to Europe. The bill (which came to be known as “the Marshall Plan”) appropriated over $17 billion to 16 European countries, with the greatest amounts going to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.

This collection focuses on the Marshall Plan. The collection includes documents covering the years 1946 through 1953. The Marshall Plan—officially, the European Recovery Program (ERP)—was an American program to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II.

The Marshall Plan was a series of economic strategies and reforms that helped to strengthen Western Europe after World War II. During the next four years, the United States provided over $13 billion in aid to 16 Western European nations ... The Europeans used this money to buy essential goods like wheat and oil and to reconstruct factories and housing.

This inquiry kit features Library of Congress sources examining the Marshall Plan and the United States support of Western Europe after World War II. Students investigate how and why the United States created and implemented the Marshall Plan and evaluate its impact on European recovery in the early Cold War period.

On this day in 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Marshall Plan legislation, setting in motion one of the most ambitious acts of partnership in modern history. April 3, 1948, officially launching the European Recovery Program aimed at rebuilding war-torn Europe after World War II. At a moment of devastation, the American people chose solidarity—helping rebuild economies, restore hope, and lay the foundations for a more stable and united Europe.

Vernon Walters has maintained that “the most important achievement of the Marshall Plan was not so much the material aid it gave as the rekindling of hope, the rekindling of energy.” ... western Europe’s aggregate GNP rose 32% while the Plan was in existence. Spurred by soaring productivity, unprecedented economic expansion took place in western Europe.

The Marshall plan focused on investing in highways. Because countries with highways will buy cars. American cars. So Turkey neglected its rail infrastructure. It was kind of a white-label Marshall plan, just a few years later and if I recall my readings about this correctly around 40% of what Marshall's might have assigned us.

The Marshall Plan (the American initiative to rebuild Western Europe after WWII) really seemed to get the job done. As others here have cited correctly, the actual overall economic contribution to Europe's GDP was comparatively marginal — but the politics and the psychology of it mattered massively. The political stability provided by the postwar presence of the United States guaranteed, in combination with the Marshall Plan, an atmosphere in which businesses felt their investments and reconstruction was safe.