The Marshall Plan Era

In 1947, urban European populations were having difficulty finding enough to eat in local markets. Farmers were not selling their food to the cities because there were too few manufactured goods available to entice farmers to grow more than their families required. Manufacturing needed to be expanded and jobs created throughout the continent to revive urban demand for rural production. The American Marshall Plan was designed to provide the financing, raw materials, and food needed to kick-start Europe’s economic recovery and revive agriculture. This chapter describes that program and the role of food aid in the ensuing European recovery. It traces the shifting emphasis, in the later years of the Marshall Plan, to supporting governments in Asia facing increased threat of communist subversion. The chapter also charts the failure of the Truman administration to deal successfully with domestic agriculture, particularly the buildup in government-owned food stocks.