"Last June 5 Secretary Marshall, speaking to a graduating class at Harvard University, went beyond the limits of his audience to tell Europe that should it seek continuing American aid, it would have to earn that aid by first helping itself. Almost a month later in Paris, Britain's Ernest Bevin opened a 12-week meeting of the 16 countries which took Marshall at his word."
The result of this conference was the first draft of the Marshall Plan, which is outlined in this article - but let it not be forgotten that 1946 it was a time in history when the fear of losing Europe to the Reds was widespread and among the assorted brainiacs who offered ideas as to how best this might be done - it was the Alsop brothers who first proposed an economic recovery plan for Europe months (April, 1946) and months before before General Marshall introduced his project.
To read about the Soviet reaction to the Marshall Plan, Click here
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