馃攳
Marshall Plan - COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY - YouTube
Channel: The Cold War
[0]
imagine for a moment the status of
[2]
Europe after the defeat of fascism in
[4]
1945 six years of carnage with the most
[7]
advanced weapons conceived to date had
[10]
left Europe in ruins towns were wiped
[13]
off the map and the political
[15]
institutions of countries such as Italy
[17]
Germany and France were devastated in
[20]
many ways these countries amongst others
[23]
had to begin from scratch I'm your host
[26]
David and today we will be talking about
[28]
how the West was rebuilt otherwise known
[31]
as the Marshall Plan this is the Cold
[34]
War
[40]
so one possible model they could look to
[43]
was the country which gave more than its
[45]
fair share and arguably sacrificed the
[47]
most and contributed the most to the
[50]
fall of the Nazi regime I am of course
[52]
talking about the Soviet Union with many
[55]
socialist currents in action before and
[57]
during the war across the world the
[60]
vision of the Red Army marching to
[62]
Berlin and destroying the symbols of the
[64]
Nazis led many to think that their way
[66]
was the future now imagine you're the
[69]
United States the wealthiest country on
[71]
earth by the end of the war more than
[73]
half of all industrial production on
[75]
earth was happening inside your borders
[78]
you won the war you have a roaring
[80]
economy but you see a rising influence
[83]
of socialism in Europe how could you
[86]
counter it well the u.s. decided to go a
[89]
rather simple route what have they just
[91]
paid them now to begin let's go back to
[95]
the video in this series on the
[96]
ideological drives behind the Cold War
[99]
as I'm sure you recall the liberal
[101]
capitalist United States saw the opening
[104]
of trade barriers and markets especially
[106]
to US companies as the epitome of
[109]
freedom the United States would do a lot
[112]
to make sure the countries wrecked from
[114]
the Second World War at least in Europe
[116]
came back online with big strong
[119]
economies full of big healthy consumers
[121]
as soon as possible so why not give
[124]
these countries a big shot of money to
[126]
get them back on their feet the u.s.
[129]
developed the first draft of this plan
[131]
in June of 1947 they even offered to
[134]
give some aid to their Soviet allies
[136]
from the war but these offers were
[138]
turning down already the wartime
[141]
alliance had frayed between the two
[143]
Stalin arguably correct newness money
[146]
would come with strings attached
[147]
the Soviets forbid their allies and
[150]
satellite states from partaking in the
[152]
cash being offered in 1948 President
[155]
Truman signed into law the European
[158]
recovery program today we call it the
[160]
Marshall Plan by the time this program
[162]
of aid would finish the US would give 16
[165]
European countries more than 17 billion
[168]
u.s. dollars this might not sound like a
[171]
lot but once
[173]
for inflation this is something equal to
[176]
200 billion dollars today this plan
[180]
tracks with the way the u.s. at the time
[182]
with their Republican Congress and
[183]
Democratic White House saw economics the
[187]
predominant economic model believed that
[188]
spending money in struggling economies
[190]
could act as fuel to get the engine
[193]
running again but this wasn't without
[195]
dissent some economists who believed in
[198]
lays a fair style of economics objected
[201]
to giving massive subsidies they
[204]
believed it would keep these countries
[205]
from abandoning what they saw as
[207]
socialist policies lazy affair economics
[210]
is the belief an economy functions best
[212]
when the state is involved with it as
[214]
little as possible Liz a fair economics
[217]
was an unpopular idea in the 1940s with
[220]
people blaming it for the Great
[222]
Depression but once we replace a few
[224]
people on this portrait over here it
[228]
will get more popular but let's rewind a
[231]
little and talk about how such an
[232]
ambitious economic project came into
[235]
being what effect did it have for Europe
[238]
and the world the destruction of the
[240]
Second World War was particularly
[242]
horrible the continent itself is no
[245]
stranger to war take a peek at our
[247]
sister channel kings and Generals for a
[249]
minute to see for yourself but this was
[252]
a war of strategic bombing the targeting
[255]
of population centers a war on
[257]
infrastructure in industry Europe was a
[260]
mess for lack of a better word the u.s.
[262]
shipped trillions of calories of food
[265]
into the continent to keep people from
[267]
starving millions of Europeans were
[269]
refugees they lived in massive camps or
[272]
wandered the continent looking for the
[274]
basics to live unemployment skyrocketed
[276]
and even by the devising of the Marshall
[279]
Plan in 1947 Europe was showing little
[282]
sign of recovering this was a situation
[284]
ripe for strikes for revolts and with
[287]
many thinking of 1917 revolution to the
[291]
US the risk of socialist overthrow was
[293]
large America by contrast had barely
[296]
been touched by the war the side from
[298]
Pearl Harbor attacks on some of their
[299]
Pacific territories including the
[301]
Aleutians by the Japanese and a strange
[304]
failed plan where the Japanese tried to
[306]
deliver
[306]
bonds across the Pacific via balloons
[308]
almost no fighting took place on
[310]
American soil the US economy also
[313]
emerged from the war at larger that had
[315]
ever been the production requirements of
[318]
the war brought the economy back to life
[319]
after more than a decade of the Great
[322]
Depression before the war the US wasn't
[325]
much of a global exporter but now well
[328]
there was an opportunity to find a lot
[330]
of new markets or bakes up getting
[336]
Europe back on its feet was not only
[337]
good for the US economy but a matter of
[340]
national security they could bring back
[342]
as much of Europe back from the
[344]
encroachment of Soviet influence as
[346]
possible the Marshall Plan replaced
[349]
something called the morgenthau plan' a
[351]
mission in the immediate post-war period
[354]
to destroy the capacity for Germany to
[356]
rearm elect more Nazis and start the
[359]
whole thing over again the USSR argued
[362]
for a much more brutal stripping of the
[364]
German industrial base by 1947 the US
[368]
was coming around the idea properly
[370]
construction and of course clear
[372]
denazification
[373]
as the way to fix Germany the Soviets
[377]
and the Americans were at an impasse
[379]
over their different goals for Germany
[381]
punitive versus restorative the Soviets
[384]
walked away from the table rejecting all
[386]
these new plans
[387]
shortly after negotiations broke down
[390]
marshall spoke about his plan to rebuild
[392]
the economy of Europe he cited it would
[395]
contribute to political stability an
[396]
effort not for any particular state but
[399]
a mission to heal the wound of the
[400]
Second World War and move on this was
[403]
the context in which Marshall offered a
[405]
program of aid to rebuild Europe despite
[408]
they're walking away in Marshalls speech
[410]
he invited the Soviets in the process
[412]
whether this was an attempt to look the
[415]
bigger country while trying to pay the
[417]
Eastern Bloc out of being communist well
[419]
that depends on how you want to read it
[421]
Stalin was a little tempted by the plan
[424]
but when he saw the aid had some strings
[426]
attached such as liberalizing trade and
[430]
standards for currency exchange he
[432]
backed out
[433]
he already had worried that the US would
[436]
use its massive capital to take over the
[438]
industrial capacity of many small
[440]
nations and to him this did nothing but
[443]
confirm it his outward concerns were
[445]
about keeping these countries free from
[447]
u.s. capitalists who would come and buy
[449]
up the economic heart of independent
[451]
states but he also feared that this
[454]
would put states out of the Soviet
[455]
sphere when invited to discuss the
[458]
Marshall Plan the Soviets not only did
[461]
not attend but barred other countries in
[464]
their block from attending as well so a
[467]
bunch of meetings took place an amount
[468]
of aid was decided upon with the
[470]
countries who did agree to it the
[472]
expenses were passed through Congress
[474]
with little issue save a few grumpy
[476]
Republicans even in the Republican Party
[479]
these guys were in the minority Congress
[482]
passed the Marshall Plan and set up the
[483]
Economic Cooperation administration to
[486]
well
[487]
administer the aid now with the
[490]
descending of the Iron Curtain some
[492]
countries in Eastern Europe and Asia
[493]
Minor were the most at risk of coming
[496]
under Soviet influence in Greece a war
[499]
between the king and communist forces
[501]
was already underway the first real
[504]
public sabre-rattling in the Cold War
[506]
was in service of increasing aid for the
[509]
monarchist forces there
[510]
nearby in Turkey there was a standoff
[513]
between the Turks and Soviets or we're
[515]
giving the USSR access to the Turkish
[517]
straits as a body of water which
[520]
connects the Black Sea to the
[521]
Mediterranean I'm sure you can imagine
[523]
the supreme strategic and economic
[525]
stakes at play here for the Soviets
[527]
so the first places martial plan aid
[530]
arrived was in these two hotspots to
[532]
counter Soviet influence the funds mated
[535]
to the rest of Europe who then used said
[538]
money as the u.s. intended to buy
[540]
American goods for reconstruction so
[542]
their loan went out of America and then
[544]
came right back that's not even
[547]
mentioning that one out of every $20 for
[549]
the Marshall Plan went to the obscure
[551]
European nation of the Central
[555]
Intelligence Agency wait what yeah in
[559]
case there was any doubt this was a
[561]
program to counter Soviet influence the
[563]
CIA got a lot of Marshall Plan money to
[566]
infiltrate
[567]
and disrupt socialist movements in the
[569]
countries they were helping you know for
[572]
freedom so did the Marshall Plan
[575]
reinvigorate the European economy and
[577]
stop the Soviets from taking over Europe
[578]
and making a real-life version of the
[581]
game Red Alert
[582]
well if you have a solid answer to that
[584]
question I would suggest you write it
[586]
all down it would be one a best-seller
[589]
and to likely get you many awards now
[593]
you're AB did bounce back rather fast in
[595]
the beginning of the plan up until the
[597]
u.s. stopped it in place of a much more
[599]
critical economic venture fighting in
[601]
the Korean Peninsula it did help
[604]
immediately food was scarce and times
[606]
were rough in Europe but historians have
[608]
been debating for decades over the
[610]
extent Marshall Plan money helped with
[613]
Europe's rapid recovery the US and
[616]
European countries had incentives to
[618]
sell the program is working both at home
[620]
and in their partner nations historians
[623]
are led to believe the effects were
[625]
exaggerated but there are other side
[628]
effects which had massive impacts on
[629]
Europe the Commission started to deal
[633]
with their recovery often gets credit
[635]
for putting Europe on the path to
[636]
integration this would eventually become
[639]
the European Union the stipulations
[642]
about liberal markets and the overt and
[644]
covert sabotage of socialist movements
[646]
did keep communism out of Western Europe
[649]
especially in places such as Austria
[651]
which was largely surrounded by Eastern
[654]
Bloc countries today the Marshall Plan
[657]
much like the New Deal is often used to
[660]
refer to the government giving massive
[662]
investment in building or rebuilding
[663]
entire cities countries or even
[666]
continents so the cultural impact of the
[669]
Marshall Plan can't be undersold also
[671]
like the New Deal
[673]
it was the high-water mark of a
[675]
Keynesian period of American economics
[677]
when the American Way involved investing
[680]
economic ventures to get the economic
[682]
machine running this idea would come
[685]
under fire and be overturned in the
[687]
1970s in favor of neoliberal economics
[691]
Europe and Japan are often held as
[693]
examples of rebuilding nations after war
[696]
and cited as a comparison example to
[699]
cases such as Iraq and Afghanistan the
[702]
last thing to mention is the Marshall
[704]
Plan that set the borders of the Cold
[706]
War dynamic and laid the foundation for
[708]
this climactic struggle for the fate of
[711]
the world we here at the Cold War will
[714]
continue to discuss that struggle in our
[716]
future videos so make sure you subscribe
[718]
to our Channel and have pressed the bell
[720]
button we rely on our patrons to create
[722]
these videos so consider supporting us
[725]
the wwp patreon.com slash the Cold War
[728]
this is the cold war Channel and we will
[731]
catch you on the next one
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage