The Marshall Plan is all about the consequences of warfare. Specifically, one war in particular. The one that your dad and all his friends are obsessed with: WWII. When the Marshall Plan speech was delivered, the war had been over for almost exactly two years.
The problem was that it's way easier to destroy something than it is to fix it. Seriously, try taking a sledgehammer to your coffee maker. Now put it back together. (Don't actually do that. Violence against coffee makes us cry.)
Europe was that coffee maker and more guns and bombs than any war in human history were the sledgehammer.
Questions About Warfare
- The costs of war are often thought of only in terms of dead and wounded. What are the other costs of war? How can they be alleviated?
- War goes through phases, and World War II was fought on the industrial model: soldiers and munitions were resources, and whoever could last longest, won. What are the benefits of that model? What are some other models? How should wars be fought? Should they at all?
- How did the Marshall Plan address the costs of war? Did it do so correctly? What would be a better way?
- The Marshall Plan was, in part, intended to keep the cost of World War II from getting any higher, i.e. keep Western Europe from going to fascism or communism. Was this the right thing to do? Could the money have been spent better? How?
Chew on This
The industrial model of warfare demands an industrial solution, and in that regard the Marshall Plan was the perfect way to help Europe recover.
The costs of warfare go deeper than money, and in providing assistance to Germany, the Marshall Plan spit on the sacrifices of a generation.