The 1947 Marshall Plan sent large-scale U.S. aid to help rebuild European economies after World War II.
U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed the European Recovery Program in a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. Congress approved the plan in 1948, and aid was delivered over four years to participating European countries.
The program supplied grants, loans, food, fuel, machinery, and raw materials. It also encouraged European economic cooperation and helped restore production, trade, and confidence after wartime destruction. The United States viewed recovery as both a humanitarian and strategic objective during the early Cold War.
The Soviet Union rejected the plan and pressured Eastern European governments not to participate. The Marshall Plan did not directly end every recession, but its support helped create conditions for Western Europe’s rapid postwar recovery.