The Marshall Plan

by Benn Steil

  Washington Post. “Gen. Walter Bedell Smith.” August 11, 1961.

  White, William S. “Connally Is Cool to Extra Session.” New York Times. September 24, 1947.

  ———. “Marshall Plan Faces Under-Cover Opposition.” New York Times. November 2, 1947.

  ———. “Stronger ‘Voice of America’ Is Backed to Counter Soviet.” New York Times. January 17, 1948.

  Whitman, Alden. “Lewis W. Douglas Is Dead.” New York Times. March 8, 1974.

  ———. “Paul G. Hoffman Is Dead at 83; Led Marshall Plan and U.N. Aid.” New York Times. October 9, 1974.

  Yacoubian, Mona. “Middle East ‘Marshall Plan’ Will Sustain Arab Spring.” The Hill (Congress Blog). January 11, 2012. http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/203639-middle-east-marshall-plan-will-sustain-arab-spring.

  Zelikow, Philip. “George C. Marshall and the Moscow CFM Meeting of 1947.” Diplomacy & Statecraft. Vol. 8, No. 2 (July 1997): 97–124.

  Zwass, Adam. “Money, Banking, and Credit in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.” Eastern European Economics. Vol. 17, Nos. 1 and 2 (Fall/Winter 1978–1979): 3-233.

  SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS

  Albright, Madeleine. “Statement.” February 18, 1997. http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_25715.htm?selectedLocale=en.

  ———. “Harvard University Commencement Address.” June 5, 1997. http://gos.sbc.edu/a/albright3.html.

  Avalon Project at Yale Law School. “Washington’s Farewell Address 1796.” Lillian Goldman Law Library. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.

  British Pathé. “Senator Vandenberg on Marshall Plan (March 1, 1948).” YouTube. Posted April 13, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z0BxDeKtrQ.

  British Pathé. “Vyshinsky at UN (September 18, 1947).” YouTube. Posted April 13, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f7qIPODFfg.

  Clinton, Hillary. “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Remarks on Receiving the George C. Marshall Foundation Award.” June 2, 2011. www.marshallfoundation.org/SecretaryClintonremarksJune22011.htm.

  Hambro, Carl Joachim. “Presentation Speech.” December 10, 1953. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1953/press.html.

  Marshall, George C. “Speech at Princeton University.” February 22, 1947. http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/6-026-speech-princeton-university-february-22-1947/.

  ———. “The Marshall Plan Speech.” June 5, 1947. http://marshallfoundation.org/marshall/the-marshall-plan/marshall-plan-speech/.

  ———. “Nobel Lecture: Essentials to Peace.” December 11, 1953. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1953/marshall-lecture.html.

  Nunn, Sam. “The Future of NATO in an Uncertain World.” Speech to the SACLANT Seminar 95. June 22, 1995. http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_24781.htm?selectedLocale=en.

  THULE. “Truman Doctrine—President Truman Speech on March 12, 1947: Giving Aid to Greece and Turkey.” YouTube. Posted October 23, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btCLnh5gCPU.

  Vyshinsky, Andrei. “Vyshinsky Speech to U.N. General Assembly.” http://astro.temple.edu/~rimmerma/vyshinsky_speech_to_un.htm.

  NOTES

  CHAPTER 1: PROLOGUE

  1 Avalon Project: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.

  2 Sherwood (1948 [2008]:99).

  3 Sherwood (1948 [2008]:109).

  4 See, for example, Plokhy (2010:17, 30).

  5 Eden (1965:513).

  6 Plokhy (2010:233–35).

  7 Chuev (1993:51).

  8 Churchill V (1951:332).

  9 Bohlen (1973:200).

  10 See, for example, Raymont (May 21, 1972).

  11 Plokhy (2010:345); Miscamble (2007:73—74); Harriman and Abel (1975:444).

  12 Plokhy (2010:xxiv).

  13 Pechatnov (2006:313–19); Pechatnov and Edmondson (2001:101).

  14 Neiberg (2015:xiii).

  15 FDR in February 1940: “The Soviet Union, as everybody who has the courage to face the fact knows, is run by a dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world. It has allied itself with another dictatorship and it has invaded a neighbor so infinitesimally small that it could do no conceivable harm to the Soviet Union, a neighbor which seeks only to live at peace as a democracy, and a liberal, forward looking democracy at that.” See “Address to the Delegates of the American Youth Congress, Washington, DC,” February 10, 1940, in Public Papers of the Presidents: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940.

  16 This is Truman’s account (Truman I [1955:79–82]). Bohlen’s is milder, but it is indisputable from Molotov’s own version that the president was undiplomatically harsh. McCullough (1992:376); Bohlen (1973:213); AVP RF, Fond 05, op. 7, P. 2, file 30, pp. 53–55.

  17 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:256); Catledge (June 24, 1941).

  18 Neiberg (2015:59, 103–4).

  19 Beschloss (2002:268).

  20 Miscamble (2007:184).

  21 Mee (1975:262).

  22 “Protocol of the Proceedings of the Berlin Conference,” No. 1383, August 1, 1945, in FRUS: The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), II: 1485–86.

  23 Thompson minutes, twelfth plenary meeting, August 1, 1945, in FRUS: The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), II: 566–69.

  24 Miscamble (2007:209).

  25 See Steil (2013) and Steil (March/April 2013).

  26 See Steil (2013).

  27 Smith (1990:282).

  28 Levering and Botzenhart-Viehe (2001:8); Kennan I (1967:57).

  29 Pechatnov and Edmondson (2001:105).

  30 Pechatnov and Edmondson (2001:107); Dunbabin (1994 [2013]:17); Gromyko (1990:141).

  31 Pechnatov and Edmondson (2001:107–10).

  32 Orwell (October 19, 1945). See also Westad (2010:3).

  33 Acheson (1969:725-26).

  34 Bohlen, memorandum, August 30, 1947, in FRUS, 1947, I: 763–65.

  35 Leffler (April 1984:364).

  36 Belair (January 16, 1948).

  37 Joseph Davies, diary entry, July 13, 1945, Box 17, Chronological File, Part I, Davies Papers, Library of Congress.

  CHAPTER 2: CRISIS

  1 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:386).

  2 Churchill speech (May 14, 1947), quoted in Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:386).

  3 Lowe (2012:xiv, 99); New York Times Magazine (March 18, 1945:5).

  4 Judt (2005:13, 17).

  5 Lowe (2012:50, 147, 150, 204–5, 229, 242–43, 262); Judt (2005:24, 34, 42, 49-50); Kershaw (2015:473–79).

  6 Kershaw (2015:470–71, 474).

  7 Judt (2005:14–17, 23, 27, 30).

  8 Fursdon (1980:20).

  9 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:288).

  10 Lowe (2012:48); Siklos (1991:1); Judt (2005:39); Truman I (1955:102).

  11 Judt (2005:86).

  12 Lowe (2012:201); Siklos (1991:1); Judt (2005:21).

  13 Judt (2005:89).

  14 Judt (2005:17).

  15 Acheson to Harry Hopkins, memorandum, “The Maintenance of the Civilian Economy of Liberated Areas Is an Essential Instrument of Total War,” December 26, 1944, in FRUS, 1945, II: 1060.

  16 Kennan I (1967:281–82).

  17 Swain (1992:35).

  18 Taylor (November 22, 1945).

  19 Kershaw (2015:488–89, 494, 501–2).

  20 Life (December 24, 1945:22).

  21 Chace (1998:135).

  22 Bevin, speech, February 21, 1946, House of Commons Debates, Vol. 419, c. 1365.

  23 Brookshire (1995:100).

  24 Vlavianos (1992:236).

  25 Robertson (1987); Stirling (1997:146–47).

  26 Truman II (1956:99–100); Crowder (2015:167); Halle (1967:110–13). The British ended up withdrawing more slowly than originally planned, although by August troop levels were down to six thousand. Source: Hightower (August 10, 1947).

  27 Marshall, “Speech at Princeton Un
iversity,” February 22, 1947, in Bland and Stoler VI (2013:47–50). Also available here: http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/6-026-speech-princeton-university-february-22-1947/.

  28 Raine (October 2001:1).

  29 Raine (October 2001:1).

  30 From the diary of V. M. Molotov, reception of Turkish ambassador Selim Sarper, June 7, 1945, AVP RF, Fond 06, op. 7, P. 2, file 31, pp. 2–6; Acheson (1969:199–200).

  31 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:369).

  32 Truman II (1956:93); Roberts (2006:309); Halle (1967:99–100). Ertegün died in 1944, not 1946—as claimed in the otherwise useful account of the Iran Crisis in Sebestyen (2014:190–99). His body was not repatriated earlier because of the war.

  33 Beisner (2006:38–39).

  34 Siracusa (October 1979:449).

  35 Beisner (2006:39–43). Acheson, interview by Theodore A. Wilson and Richard D. Mckinzie, June 30, 1971, Oral History Interviews, Truman Library: 2–3; Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:370–72); McCullough (1992:369).

  36 McCullough (1992:540); Donovan (1977:277).

  37 Acheson (1969:217–19).

  38 Yergin (1977:279); Mark F. Ethridge to Marshall, February 17, 1947, in FRUS, 1947, V: 820–21.

  39 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:389).

  40 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:233).

  41 Guardian U.S. correspondent Alistair Cooke claimed the crowd numbered thirty thousand. Beisner (2006:29); Mount (April 26, 2012:27–28); Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:339).

  42 Beisner (2006:29); “Summary of Mr. Acheson’s Remarks at the American Platform Guild Conference, State Department, January 3, 1946,” Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary of State File, Acheson Papers, Truman Library.

  43 Pearson (December 6, 1945).

  44 McCullough (1992:490).

  45 Reston (August 25, 1946).

  46 See, for example, Halle (1967:113–14).

  47 Harkins (January 4, 1948).

  48 Laura Ruttum, “Finding Aid to the George Kennan Papers: 1856–1987,” March 2008, George Kennan Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library: 8. http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/kennan.pdf.

  49 Thompson (2009:5–11); Kennan to Jeanette Hotchkiss, October 8, 1944, Folder 10: “Hotchkiss, Jeanette (Letters from George), 1919–1945,” Box 23, Permanent Correspondence, Correspondence, Kennan Papers, Mudd Library, Princeton University.

  50 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:229); Oser (July 27, 1986).

  51 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:373).

  52 Kennan to Byrnes [“Long Telegram”], February 22, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 698–708.

  53 Gaddis (2011:211); Kennan draft, “The United States and Russia,” Winter 1946, in Kennan I (1967:560–65).

  54 Acheson (1969:196).

  55 Beisner (2006:118); Acheson to John P. Frank, n.d. [1967], Folder 137, Box 11, General Correspondence, Acheson Papers, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.

  56 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:355–56).

  57 Kennan (“X”) (July 1947).

  58 Kissinger (1979:135).

  59 Kornienko (2001:60–61).

  60 Kennan, “Soviet-American Relations,” lecture at the State Department, September 1946, Kennan Papers, Mudd Library, Princeton University (and in National Archives, RG 59).

  61 Nye (2005).

  62 Kennan to Byrnes [“Long Telegram”], February 22, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 698–708.

  63 Between 1946 and 1948, Jones’ full title was special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for public affairs. Source: “Biographical Sketch,” Jones Papers, Truman Library: https://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/jonesjm.htm.

  64 Bohlen (1973:261).

  65 Jones (1955:129–34).

  66 Reston (March 1, 1947).

  67 Jones (1955:134).

  68 Pogue IV (1987:161).

  69 Acheson (1969:217–19).

  70 Jones (1955:135).

  71 McCullough (1992:549).

  72 Jones (1955:130).

  73 Truman II (1956:103).

  74 Jones (1955:139); Crowder (2015:183).

  75 Acheson (1969: 219).

  76 See, for example, New York Times (August 16, 1946).

  77 Vandenberg (1952:340).

  78 Jones (1955:139–42); Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:395); Acheson (1969:219); Vandenberg (1952:338–40).

  79 Jones (1955:143–44).

  80 Jones (1955:143).

  81 Jones (1955:145).

  82 Reston (March 1, 1947).

  83 Jones (1955:145–47); Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:395).

  84 McCullough (1992:545–46).

  85 The witness was Katharine Lee Marshall, legislative secretary for the United States section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Statement Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, April 8, 1947, in “Assistance to Greece and Turkey: Hearings Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,” Legislative History of the Assistance to Greece and Turkey, P.L. 80-75: 282.; Jones (1955:159–63); Acheson (1969:3).

  86 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1947:7).

  87 Fossedal (1993:214).

  88 Reston (March 11, 1947).

  89 Morris (February 21, 1947); Acheson (1969:222).

  90 McCullough (1992:545).

  91 Byrnes (1947:146); Washington Post (August 19, 1946); Acheson to Harold Shantz, August 14, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 921; Acheson to Richard C. Patterson, August 20, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 923; Cortesi (August 20, 1946); Richard C. Patterson to Byrnes, August 20, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 925; Chicago Tribune (August 27, 1946); Byrnes to Clayton, August 28, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 930; Acheson to Byrnes, August 29, 1946, in FRUS, 1946, VI: 931–32.

  92 Mills (1951:210); Beisner (2006:66).

  93 Arkes (1972:45–46).

  94 Beisner (2006:59); U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1954 [1970]:41).

  95 Kennan to Lovett, August 19, 1947, and Kennan to Forrestal, September 29, 1947, Folder: “Chronological—1947,” Box 33, PPS Records, RG 59, National Archives.

  96 Acheson (1969:221); Jones (155:167); McCullough (1992:546); Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:376).

  97 McCullough (1992:543–46); Bohlen (1973:261).

  98 Isaacson and Thomas (2012 [1986]:397–98).

  99 Kruszewski (April 1954:401).

  100 Mackinder (1919 [1996]:106).

  101 See Brotton (2012:363).

  102 Mackinder (July 1943).

  103 Boggs (June 1947:472); Barney (2015:93).

  104 Kennan, National War College lectures, March 14 and 28, 1947, Folders 30 and 31, Box 298, Unpublished Works, Writings, Kennan Papers, Mudd Library, Princeton University; Gaddis (2011:257); Jones (1955:155).

  105 Kennan I (1967:322–23); Gaddis (2011:257).

  106 McCullough (1992:549).

  107 Truman II (1956:102).

  108 McCullough (1992:651).

  109 Audio of Truman’s address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btCLnh5gCPU (THULE [October 23, 2012]).

  110 Crowder (2015:169).

  111 See, for example, Beisner (2006:61).

  112 Acheson (1969:223).

  113 Presidential historian Robert Donovan, quoted in Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:398).

  114 New York Times (March 12, 1947).

  115 New York Times (March 13, 1947).

  116 Nover (March 13, 1947).

  117 Simms (March 14, 1947). Other notable early uses of the term “Truman Doctrine” in the press are: Reston (March 14, 1947);. Reston (March 16, 1947);. Belair (March 16, 1947); New York Times (March 16, 1947), “The News of the Week in Review: ‘Truman Doctrine’ ”; New York Times (March 16, 1947), “The Truman Doctrine”; and Washington Post (March 16, 1947).

  118 Augusta Chronicle (Georgia) (March 13, 1947).

  119 “The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed
men, led by Communists, who defy the government’s authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries.”

  120 Trussell (March 13, 1947:1).

  121 Vandenberg (1952:343–44).

  122 “Letter of the USSR Consul General in New York Ya.M. Lomakin to the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.Ya. Vyshinsky on the Truman Doctrine,” April 19, 1947, AVP RF, Fond 0129, op. 31, P. 192, file 12, pp. 19–21.

  123 Novikov (1989:379); Holloway (1994:254).

  124 Judt (2005:127). Judt attributes this to Andrei Zhdanov, but this appears incorrect. The original source is a sixty-five-page memorandum prepared by the Central Committee’s Foreign Policy Department in late August or early September 1947, as background for Zhdanov’s report to a conference of nine eastern European Communist parties: “International Situation of the Soviet Union,” RGASPI, Fond 575, op. 1, file 3, p. 57. I am grateful to Svetlana Chervonnaya for pointing this out.

  125 Ivan Maisky, diary, conversation with Harriman, September 12, 1945, AVP RF, Fond 06, op. 7, P. 5, file 51, pp. 69–70 (with a copy sent to Stalin); Plokhy (2010:142).

  126 Roberts (Spring 2002:23–54); Plokhy (2010:149).

  127 Bidault (1965 [1967]:67).

  128 Plokhy (2010:140–42, 147–50, 200, 266, 268–69, 331, 379); Churchill VI (1953:293).

  129 Plokhy (2010:200).

  130 Pechatnov (May 1995:23); Judt (2005:121).

  131 The two Yugoslavs Stalin met with on January 9 were Politburo member Andrija Hebrang and Chief of the Supreme Staff General Arso Jovanović. Source: Georgi Dimitrov, entry of January 10, 1945, in Banac (2003:352–53).

  132 Djilas (1962:141).

  133 Chuev (1993:76); Pechatnov and Edmondson (2001:119).

  134 http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-truman-doctrine/.

  135 Jones (1955:178–80).

  136 Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:408).

  137 Lippmann (March 18, 1947).

  138 Haas (2016:148); Isaacson and Thomas (1986 [2012]:400–401).

  139 The Senate vote was 32–7 among Democrats and 35–16 among Republicans. The House vote was 160–13 among Democrats and 127–94 among Republicans. Source: Congressional Quarterly (1948:270, 274–75).

  140 New York Times (February 9, 1966).

  141 Fossedal (1993); Time (August 17, 1936).

  142 Clayton, memorandum, March 5, 1947, in Dobney (1971:198–200).