ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 3, 1997 TAG: 9703030092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
GEORGE C. MARSHALL was firm in the belief that the strongest guarantee of democracy was the rebuilding of Europe. His vision and legacy will be marked in the coming months.
With Europe ravaged by World War II and famine threatening the peace produced by the conquest of Nazi Germany, George C. Marshall was certain the United States needed to rescue the continent.
Marshall was the Army chief of staff when Adolf Hitler overran Poland and was President Truman's secretary of state after the war, and he knew that, without economic aid, postwar Europe might embrace Soviet-style communism.
He suggested the United States lead the Allies in rebuilding the continent - Germany and Italy included. The result was $13.3 billion in U.S. economic aid and a blueprint for American foreign policy during the cold war.
``The Marshall Plan was the most successful foreign policy program of the entire Cold War period,'' said University of Virginia history professor Melvyn Leffler.
``It contributed enormously to the recovery and integration of western Europe,'' he said. ``It was critical to the successful containment of the Soviet Union and to defeat communism in countries like Italy and France.''
In the coming months, the George C. Marshall Educational Foundation at his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute, will commemorate the plan's 50th anniversary with a series of speeches, exhibits and a gala dinner in Washington.
Marshall's plan stemmed from a trip to the continent in the winter of 1947, one of the harshest in modern history. Temperatures in Europe dropped below zero and snow fell in record amounts. Germans were starving and there was fear they might follow another despot. More than half of England's factories were idle, but Britain was better off than France or Italy, where a third of the populace supported the Communist Party.
As a soldier, Marshall and others who saw Hitler use the politics of hate to rebuild Germany and lead the world again into war realized that punishing the Germans after World War I had been a mistake.
``If you look at history, countries tend to stomp your enemies and then regret it,'' said Larry Bland, a history professor and editor of publications at the Marshall Foundation.
Marshall felt it was in the best interest of the United States and democracy itself to rebuild Europe by providing machines, factories and houses. He outlined it all in what became known as the Harvard Speech.
``Our policy,'' Marshall said at Harvard University's commencement ceremonies in June, ``is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.''
The initiative for cooperatively rebuilding Europe would have to come from the nations of Europe, he stressed in his address.
The British foreign secretary at the time called the speech ``a lifeline to sinking men.''
The generous plan had its opponents. Some critics called it ``Operation Rathole'' because previous U.S. aid packages did nothing to revive Europe.
``In modern terms, this is about $100 billion,'' Bland said. ``Can you imagine Congress appropriating $100 billion to foreign countries now?''
Marshall campaigned for the plan nationwide like a candidate would campaign for president. He spoke before business organizations, labor groups, farm federations, service clubs and women's organizations.
``People trusted him and said, `If George Marshall is for this plan, it's probably OK,''' Bland said. ``You just knew you were getting the truth.''
In April 1948, Congress approved the plan, and Marshall was later honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the first professional soldier to win the honor.
For all its benefits, the Marshall plan had its drawbacks.
Some U.S. industries, such as textiles and electronics, were deeply hurt by the increased competition from countries propped up after the war.
Leffler said the Marshall plan intensified the Cold War and made life tougher for people living in Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Soviet-bloc nations in Europe.
``We know it played a very significant role in accentuating the fears of the Kremlin and intensifying the Kremlin's sense of insecurity,'' he said. ``The Soviets saw it as a means by which the United States was enticing Eastern bloc countries to come over to our side, and it made them inclined to crack down harder on the Eastern bloc.''
But the capitalist democracies of Western Europe endured in peace during the last 50 years and saw the communist regimes of Eastern Europe crumble and free nations rise in their place.
On June 5, the anniversary of the Harvard speech, Colin Powell will be the master of ceremonies at the dinner honoring Marshall in Washington. The guest list includes every living U.S. president, former secretaries of defense and secretaries of state, and heads of state from the 16 European countries.
JoAnne Mantz, publicity director for the Marshall foundation, said Marshall would abhor such attention surrounding the plan's anniversary and would absolutely detest the gala.
``He never wanted credit for any of his work,'' she said.
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP FILE 1947. 1. Secretary of State George C. Marshall,by CNBphotographed at his desk in Washington D.C. (this photo only ran in
the New River edition.) 2. U.S. Army photo Gen. George C. Marshall
visits the 92nd Division, Fifth Army, near Reggio, Italy, in 1945.
After Marshall's plan was approved by Congress in 1948, he became
the first professional soldier to win the Nobel Peace Prize. ( This
photo only ran in the Metro edition.)