At the end of 1945 President Truman on the advise of Leo Crowley made the decision, against vigorous oppositon, to end lend-lease, as there was the feeling that it was being exploited as many countries had started stockpiling. Such a move showed a clear lack of understanding in the face of the problems facing post-War Europe. It was relaunched shortly after in order to make a loan available to Britain for reconstruction. By this stage, the realisation had dawned on the American administration that they had underestimated the level of economic chaos in Europe and the inability of UNNRA to deal with it. By 1947 Europe was in despir, reconstruction became difficult because of the dollar problem, inflation and rising prices the need for prompt and substantial aid from US to prevent social and economic disintegration was considered the only option. After persuading Congress to approve aid to Greece and Turkey in March 1947, Dean Acheson, Secretary of State began work on an economic aid programme for all of Europe. The announcement of the Marshall aid programme in June 1947 gave real hope in Europe, although it took till the following May for shipments to arrive. David Bruce was the first head of the Marshall Plan mission in Paris established in 1948 by the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA), which in turn was established by the Marshall Plan legislation. The Marshall Plan was the economic turning point in the history of Europe, in that Secretary of the Treasury, Marshall called upon the Europeans to get together and work out a common programme rather than have the US give aid to each country individually. A conference was held in Paris with 16 countries participating to discuss their needs, this conference was organised by the Committee of European Economic Cooperation (CEEC), which later became a permanent organisation the OEEC and was responsible to distributing Marshall aid. Interim aid was granted to both France and Italy at the end of 1947 to relieve the immediate situation for the purchase of food, coal and petroleum, France was given additional counterpart to prevent a political crisis, this counterpart was intended for investment expenditure. The US too had particular interest in seeing Western Europe recover, with the commencment of the cold war, there was the increased urgency to see West Germany recover within the context ofWestern Europe. Therefore the Marshall Plan became the seed for the idea of a partnership of equals.

The originals are held in various Archives in Europe and in the USA

No Photocopying