In the immediate postwar era, the challenge was clear
and intimidating. The peoples of Europe needed to
rebuild their national economies and reestablish and
strengthen their democratic institutions. They needed to
find the means to cooperate in the face of a potential new
threat from the east in the form of the Soviet Union.
Above all, they needed to restore their confidence in the
continuing vitality and future promise of European civilization—
a civilization whose image had been badly tarnished
by two bitter internal conflicts in the space of a
quarter century.
In confronting the challenge, the Europeans possessed
one significant trump card: the support and assistance of
the United States. The United States had entered World
War II as a major industrial power, but its global influence
had been limited by the effects of the Great Depression
and a self-imposed policy of isolation that had removed
it from active involvement in world affairs. But after
the United States helped bring the conflict to a close, the
nation bestrode the world like a colossus. Its military
power was enormous, its political influence was unparalleled,
and its economic potential, fueled by the demands
of building a war machine to defeat the Axis, seemed
unlimited. When on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State
George C. Marshall told the graduating class at Harvard
University that the United States was prepared to assist
the nations of Europe in the task of recovery from “hun-
ger, poverty, desperation, and chaos,” he offered a beacon
of hope to a region badly in need of reasons for optimism.
World History
