250 a short history of the united states
recovery program. He said that his plan was directed not against any
partic ular country or ideology, but “against hunger, poverty, despera-
tion and chaos.” Representatives from sixteen European countries met
in Paris and established the Committee for European Economic
Cooperation, which worked out a master plan for the reconstruction of
Europe’s financial base that required between $ 16. 4 billion and $ 22. 4
billion from the United States. Naturally Russia condemned the
proposed Marshall Plan as an obvious ploy by the United States to ad-
vance its imperialistic ambitions, and it forbade its satellite states from
participating.
For ten months Congress debated the European Recovery Program
(ERP) but what turned the tide in favor of the bill was the seizure in
Februar y 1948 of Czech oslovakia by that country’s Communists, and
the measure passed overwhelmingly on March 31. Truman signed it on
April 3. Between April 1948 and December 1951 , the United States con-
tributed a little over $ 12 billion to Europe through the Economic Coop-
eration Administration. By 1951 Europe had not only achieved its prewar
level of production but its level of industrial production rose to virtually
guarantee genuine prosperity for the future. At the same time the com-
munist countries throughout eastern Europe had shriveled econom-
ically, due in large measure to the fact that the Soviets carted off to
Rus sia whatever materials would enhance their own economic needs.
Inasmuch as the three Allied zones constituting West Germany were
considered the industrial center of Europe and therefore the key to the
continent’s recovery, and inasmuch as the Soviet Union had refused to
settle the German situation, the United States and its allies agreed to
consolidate their zones and include it in the ERP. So they went ahead
and established a West German Federal Republic in June 1948.
Despite the statesmanlike actions taken by Truman in confronting
the Soviet threat during the Berlin airlift, he suffered a steep decline in
personal popularity. He was seen as an accidental president who failed
to meet the standards set by his pre deces sor. Even more devastating
was the internal disorder of the Democratic Party. The President was
battered by both the right and the left, and this situation gave the Re-
publicans great hope that they could capture both Congress and the
presidency in the election of 1948. On the right, southern Democrats
were angry over the fact that Truman had appointed a Civil Rights