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For European Recovery:
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Marshall Announces His Plan
The speech George C. Marshall delivered was drafted by Charles E. Bohlen, a State Department official and future ambassador to the Kremlin. As its basis, he used a memo prepared by a State Department Policy Planning staff directed by Soviet-expert George Kennan as well as reports by other State Department officials. Marshall then prepared the final version.
In the speech Marshall outlined the problem: "Europe's requirements are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character." He then suggested a solution: that the European nations themselves set up a program for the reconstruction of Europe, with United States assistance. The significance of Marshall's plan was immediately recognized. On June 13, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (1891-1951) predicted that his address "will rank as one of the greatest speeches in world history."
"Marshall Sees Europe in Need of Vast New U.S. Aid; Urges Self-Help in Reconstruction."
Washington Post, June 6, 1947, pp. 1,3.
Page 1Copyprint from Microfilm, Serial and Government Publications Division.
Page 3
Used by permission of the Washington Post. All rights reserved. (1)
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