THE MARSHALL PLAN (1947)
On June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall spoke at HarvardUniversity and outlined what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Europe, still devastated by the war, had just survived one of the worst winters on record. The nations of Europe had nothing to sell for hard currency, and the democratic socialist governments in most countries were unwilling to adopt the draconian proposals for recovery advocated by old-line classical economists. Something had to be done, both for humanitarian reasons and also to stop the potential spread of communism westward.
The United States offered up to $20 billion for relief, but only if the European nations could get together and draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid. For the first time, they would have to act as a single economic unit; they would have to cooperate with each other. Marshall also offered aid to the Soviet Union and its allies in eastern Europe, but Stalin denounced the program as a trick and refused to participate. The Russian rejection probably made passage of the measure through Congress possible.
The Marshall Plan, it should be noted, benefited the American economy as well. The money would be used to buy goods from the United States, and they had to be shipped across the Atlantic on American merchant vessels. But it worked. By 1953 the United States had pumped in $13 billion, and Europe was standing on its feet again. Moreover, the Plan included West Germany, which was thus reintegrated into the European community. (The aid was all economic; it did not include military aid until after the Korean War.)
In many ways, the Marshall Plan satisfied both those who wanted our foreign policy to be generous and idealistic and those who demanded real help; it helped feed the starving and shelter the homeless, and at the same time stopped the spread of communism and put the European economy back on its feet.
The Marshall Plan. International Information Programs. April 24, 2005.
THE FORMATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (1945)
The trauma and violence of World War II (WWII) inspired the Allied Nations to try to establish a peace-keeping organization to prevent such horrors from happening again. It was a stronger version of the League of Nations, which had failed to maintain the peace after World War I. The two main principles behind the UN are the establishment of both world peace and global security.
Leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China met for several months in the fall of 1944 in Washington, DC, to determine the goals, structure, and methods of functioning for the United Nations. These meetings held between September 21 and October 7 became known as the Dumbarton Oaks Conference.
On February 11, 1945, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta Conference and announced their resolution to form "a general international organization to maintain peace and security".
The San Francisco Conference of 1945 propelled the United Nations into reality. On April 25, delegates from fifty nations across the globe gathered in San Francisco, where they negotiated and drew up the 111-article Charter of the United Nations; the Charter was then unanimously adopted on June 25 and signed on June 26. Poland was not represented at the conference, but soon signed the Charter to become the 51st and last original member state.
The Charter's preamble states the purpose in founding such an institution: "We the peoples of the United Nations determined…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small …" The Charter itself includes the following goals: "…To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion…"
The United Nations officially became an institution with the ratification of the UN Charter on October 24, 1945. From then on, it quickly became an active international body. On January 10, 1946, the first General Assembly met at Westminster, London. There were 51 nations represented at this first meeting. One week later, on January 17, the Security Council first met, also in London. The following week, on January 24, the General Assembly adopted its first resolution, focusing on peaceful uses of atomic energy and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. February 1 of that year saw the appointment of the first Secretary-General, Trygve Lie, from Norway. The UN Headquarters were first established in New York City on October 24, 1949.
The United Nations Human Rights System. Human Rights Education Association. April 24, 2005.
THE IRON CURTAIN COMES DOWN
Even before World War II ended, the U.S.S.R. had taken over the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania; parts of Poland, Finland, and Romania; and eastern Czechoslovakia.
After the War ended, during 1945 and early in 1946, the Soviet Union cut off nearly all contacts between the West and the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. In March 1946, Churchill warned that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" of Europe. He made popular the phrase Iron Curtain to refer to Soviet barriers against the West. Behind these barriers, the U.S.S.R. steadily expanded its power.
In 1946, the U.S.S.R. organized Communist governments in Bulgaria and Romania. In 1947, Communists took control of Hungary and Poland. Communists seized full power in Czechoslovakia early in 1948. These countries became Soviet satellites (nations controlled by the U.S.S.R.). Both Albania and Yugoslavia also established Communist governments, but were technically independent of the Soviet Union.
East and West opposed each other in the United Nations. In 1946, the U.S.S.R. rejected a U.S. proposal for an international agency to control nuclear energy production and research. The Soviet Union believed the United States had a lead in nuclear weapons and would have a monopoly if controls were approved. The Soviet Union pictured itself as a defender of peace and accused the United States of planning a third world war.
The Cold War. World Book Online ReferenceCenter. April 24, 2005.
Division of Germany
On May 8, 1945, the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) was signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in Berlin, ending World War II for Germany. The German people were suddenly confronted by a situation never before experienced in their history: the entire German territory was occupied by foreign armies, cities, roads, bridges and railroads were largely reduced to rubble, the country was flooded with millions of refugees from the east, and large portions of the population were suffering from hunger and the loss of their homes. Hitler’s Third Reich, which he bragged would last a thousand years, lay in ruins.
In June 1945, the Allied Big Four—the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and the United States—officially took over supreme authority in Germany. The country was divided into four zones of military occupation, with each power occupying a zone. Berlin, located deep in the Soviet zone, was also divided into four sectors.
In July and August 1945, leaders of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States met in Potsdam, Germany. They agreed to govern Germany together and to rebuild it as a democracy. They also agreed to stamp out Nazism and to settle German refugees from Eastern Europe in Germany. Under the agreement, the Soviet Union also was granted northern East Prussia, which it claimed. The rest of that region, and German territory east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, were placed under Polish control. As a result, Germany lost about a fourth of its land.
James J. Sheehan, "Germany," World Book Online Americas Edition. April 25, 2005.
Postwar Occupation and Division. German Culture. April 24, 2005.
US 8Name:
Muson/Underwood
AFTER WORLD WAR II
Putting the World Back Together
Topic / Key facts / What nations/people might like this? Why? / What nations/people might dislike this? Why?Division of Germany
The Formation of the United Nations
The Nuremberg Trials
The Establishment of Israel
The Marshall Plan
The Iron Curtain