This is a spin-off from a forum topic about how the Soviets treated the SS men they captured. A member of the forum touched on one of the most important parts of the history of post-war Germany, Marshall aid and other relief packages, and to my mind got it spectacularly wrong.
This took a while to put together so please do me the courtesy reading through to the end before describing it as lies and Western propaganda!
POW commented
I fundamentally disagree with this stance, and suspect POW is confusing the post-war timeline, detonation of the first Soviet Atomic bomb (1949) and Marshall aid, which kicked in first, in 1948 and was open to all European countries -both east and west -, so couldn't have been a response to 'the Iron Curtain'. He also belittles its importance. It’s a huge topic so I'll split my comments over several postsAfter the war the Americans did't had the intensions to help Germans. There was no plan to rebuild the economy as well. The sudden charity the Germans received they have to thank to the atomic bomb and the iron courtain. However the Marshall plan made only a difference of a few percent to the entire remaining German economy it was a good idea of course.
So what we’ve got here is a Germany on her knees in 1945 – Year Zero, but how was the ‘economic miracle’ made possible and how was mass starvation avoided?Thus the major consequence of the war [for Germany] in the immediate post-war period was the hardship and dislocation that resulted from the destruction of the cities, from economic collapse and from the massive population mobility. The destruction itself was unbelievable. Over 50% of housing in the big cities had been destroyed. Production fell to almost zero in April 1945. In 1946, production in the Western Zones still had not exceeded 25% of the pre-war figures. Rations remained little above starvation levels until 1948. For three years after the end of the war , life was one long struggle for the ordinary citizen.
Though they dominated the immediate post-war period, the hardship and disruption of normal life were short-lived. Malnutrition disappeared rapidly after 1948
So at Yalta it was beginning to dawn on America that someone had to work-out how to rebuild Europe, that’s the whole of Europe, including Germany and the Eastern European countries under Stalin’s control. The two European powers that should have done it were economically wiped-out; it was down to Uncle Sam, partly because it was in the interests of the US that there was a strong European economy (you can’t sell fridge freezers to people with no electricity) and partly because it was the right thing to do.World War two had left two genuinely ‘great powers’, the US and the USSR, on the flanks of Europe. Yet there were two other powers, Britain and France, both on the winning side in the war, both with a tradition of being ‘great powers’ and both keen to maintain that position. Neither Britain nor France had the manpower or the economic resources to challenge these powers.
At the time of the Yalta agreement the US government were unaware of the consequences of its newfound power and the degree to which the implementation of its vaguely formulated plans for a world economic and political order would involve it in a continuous and active political and military involvement overseas. Nor did the US realize that it would have to adopt many of the traditional stratagems of the other great powers that they saw as morally inferior
US foreign policy sort a post-war world much like that envisaged by Woodrow Wilson in 1918: A community of self-governing nations existing on the basis of self-determination. At the same time, its political liberation was to be accompanied by an economic liberation, at once self-serving [for the Americans] and idealistic
[Marshall aid was offered to countries that ended-up behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, and despite the desperate need, Stalin said ‘NO’ – that’s why there was no ‘economic miracle’ in the east]Planning for the economic recovery of Europe by means of American aid began in both Europe and the US almost immediately after Marshall’s speech. [General George Marshall, US Secretary of State, speech given on 5th June 1947] Britain took the initiative in Europe. In 1948 Congress ratified, and from June 1948 until1952 some $13,150 million in American aid was given to Europe.
Britain received $3,176 million
France received $2,706 million
Italy received $1,474 million
West Germany $1,389 million
So lets remind ourselves what POW saidMost of the money was spent in the US itself providing at first food, animal feed and fertilizers for the immediate problems, and then raw materials and semi-finished products, together with fuel, machinery and vehicles. By the end of the programme agricultural output in Western Europe was 10% above the pre-war levels [bearing in mind all the land Germany lost] and industrial output was 35% above.
West Germany $1,389 million – no, no plans to give aid or rebuild the economy there!After the war the Americans did't had the intensions to help Germans. There was no plan to rebuild the economy as well.
More soon
Regards
-Nick
Sources
Marwick et al, Total war and Historical change: Europe 1914-55, OU Press, 2001
Emsley et al, Total War and Social change 1914-55, OU Press,2001
