Mastodawn

Julien M.Oct 19, 2023

#History #ForeignPolicy #AmericanAid
Review: “Les Origines du plan Marshall”
#AnnieLacroixRiz analyses the “Myth of the #US American Aid” to #Europe following the #SecondWorldWar and the path to the imposition of #US hegemony.
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#LacroixRiz’s analysis, as meticulous as always, sheds light on the years 1941 to 1946 – the period, in which the #UnitedStates imposed its “rise to global hegemony.” The French General #PaulAndréDoyen, head of the #French delegation to the #GermanArmisticeCommission since September 6, 1940, had already predicted the #GermanReich’s demise back in July 1941: the #UnitedStates, the actual victor of the #FirstWorldWar, would emerge from the Second even more powerful, while the European countries, which once could still have been its rival, would be seriously weakened. The world “would have to bow to the will of the #UnitedStates over the coming decades.” Doyen was right.

During the period mentioned above, the #UnitedStates laid the necessary groundwork – not only militarily, but above all economically. Important milestones, such as the #LandLeaseAct, which regulated – beginning in 1941 – the delivery of strategic combat material to allied countries, officially on a leasing basis; then the results of #BrettonWoods in July 1944, which ensured the dominance of the US-dollar; and ultimately, particularly for #France, the #BlumByrnesAgreements of May 1946, compelling access for #US cultural products, particularly films, to the French cultural market. All these milestones decisively contributed to paving the way for #US-American products and capital into #Europe. The #MarshallPlan was merely the final cherry on the cake. It further increased sales of #US products to #WestEuropean countries, binding them even more closely to the #USA, ultimately securing #US hegemony.
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https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/9378

Review: “Les Origines du plan Marshall”

The Marshall Plan? That was, according to the belief widely held in the West, and semi-officially supported in West Germany, an unselfish reconstruction program by the United States after the Second World War. The program publicly presented on June 5, 1947, by George C. Marshall, US Secretary of State, at the time, was aimed at helping the economies of Europe – still floundering under the destruction of the war – to get back on their feet, while simultaneously “preventing the spread of communism.” This is how it is explained, for example, on the web portal “Lebendes Museum Online” (LeMo), which is sponsored by the German government’s Foundation ”Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.” According to this, from 1948 to 1952, Washington, altruistically made enormous sums available, at the time, – around US $12.4 billion – in current values €157 billion – to improve living conditions in Western Europe. The Marshall Plan – a humanitarian miracle? Whoever is skeptical about this semi-official historiography, will find comprehensive background information in the recently published book by French historian, Annie Lacroix-Riz on “The Origins of the Marshall Plan” or, as described in the subtitle, “the Myth of the American Aid.”