Vaհe H Apelian
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| George C. Marshall |
I too have read about the Marshall plan and knew that it was about the assistance the U.S. rendered for rebuilding the Western Europe after the catastrophic 1937-1945 World War II. It had never occurred to me to know why it was called Marshall plan and the ideal that catapulted it.
As a noun "marshal" with one "l", is the standard spelling for the an army officer, and as a verb it is understood to mean, organize, mobilize, summon, rally, muster, as synonyms listed by Merrian-Webster dictionary.
But the Marshall Plan is with two "l's", which typically is used as a proper noun, as in the case of the famed plan. The man behind the plan for assisting Western Europe to recover was George Catlett Marshall Jr., who was, according to Wikipedia, an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army under presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, then served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under Truman. On June 5, 1947, George C. Marshall was the U.S. Secretary of State.
I came across the following as to what transpired on June 5, 1947. I reproduced it here.
“George C. Marshall sat silent as senators tried to turn victory into vengeance.
It was 1947, and Europe lay in ruins, cities hollowed by bombs, economies starving, governments collapsing. The United States could have walked away. Instead, Marshall, then Secretary of State, proposed something unthinkable: rebuilding the very continent America had just fought.
In a Harvard commencement address on June 5, 1947, he spoke for barely ten minutes. No grand promises. No applause lines. Just a blueprint for mercy that would become the Marshall Plan — a $13 billion recovery effort (over $170 billion today) to feed, rebuild, and stabilize Western Europe. “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine,” he said, “but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”
Behind that calm voice was a soldier who understood the cost. As Army Chief of Staff during World War II, he’d commanded more than 8 million men, yet refused personal glory. When Roosevelt wanted to give him command of D-Day, Marshall declined so Eisenhower could lead, saying only, “The President must decide where I’m of most use.” No medals, no press tours. His aides joked that Marshall’s ego had been “drafted out of him.”
The Marshall Plan was attacked as naive, even treasonous. Critics warned he was giving away the treasury to “feed foreigners.” But within four years, Europe’s industrial output rose 35%, and former enemies like Germany and Italy became allies. The plan didn’t just rebuild cities. it rebuilt trust.
In 1953, Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize, the first career soldier ever to do so. He accepted it quietly, saying peace required “the same qualities of discipline and sacrifice as war.” He died in 1959, leaving behind no memoirs, no self-promotion — just a legacy carved in rebuilt streets and reopened schools.
George C. Marshall proved that real strength isn’t domination and it’s the courage to rebuild what war destroyed.” (True
As an added note, it should be noted that the United States of America was at its greatest in the world in the aftermath of World War II. It possessed nuclear power when no other nation possessed such power. It had the greatest economy of any nation in the world. It provided to its citizens a standard of living unheard and unexperienced before.
Yes, America acted in a self-imposed restrained no nation, so powerful, had imposed upon itself and curtailed the human impulse for conquering and domination.
In short, we would be living in an altogether different world, had the United States of America not emerged as victorious in the greatest conflict that humankind had experienced hitherto, up to that time.
