A Marshall Plan for Ukraine?

As the 75th anniversary of George Marshall’s speech on rebuilding Europe approaches, it’s unclear whether the West’s vast resources will be enough to help Ukraine.

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On June 5, 1947, then-Secretary of State George Marshall delivered Harvard University’s commencement speech and used the opportunity to outline the ideas behind the foreign aid program that would help Western Europe recover from World War II and come to bear his name.

Now, 75 years later, when an updated version of the Marshall Plan is being widely called for as a guide to how the United States and its allies should respond to the Ukraine crisis, the Marshall Plan and its origins deserve our renewed attention.

America had come to the aid of other countries before, of course. It contributed to Belgian relief in World War I, and through the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 provided Great Britain with military aid before we entered World War II.  But the Marshall Plan was different in scale and intent from these earlier ventures.  It was designed to get Europe back on its feet with sustained help, much as the New Deal was designed to help America recover from the Great Depression.

Marshall’s Harvard speech took him just 12 minutes to read, but in it he made the urgency of the moment clear. “I need not tell you the world situation is very serious,” Marshall began by saying. America could not afford to watch events from the sidelines. What happened in Europe had consequences for us if we wanted to live in a world in which there was “political stability.”  

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Comments (17)
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  1. Emma

    I'd love to see our infrastructure rebuilt before rebuilding Europe...again.

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    1. Chanterelle

      We are rebuilding our infrastructure, it doesn't have to be us or them. It can be both. Maybe read some hostory books about WWI, the depression & WWII. Someone did a series a few years ago, I can't remember if it was the History channel.
      I suppose it also boils down to the proverb "he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." When we leave suffering neighbors with no help sometimes the devices they come up with negatively effect everyone. We reaped enormous economic benefits while we helped rebuild Europe, we prospered even more than before. Good Will increases fortunes. That is why financial gurus recommend you donate money. The benefits are real.

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      1. Emma

        Europe created the mess that lead to both world wars. If this is about helping people we should be in impoverished nations, not a continent that can't keep itself out of world conflicts more than 15 years. Europe needs to own its own problems and stop expecting the world to fix it for them. They've caused enough damage.

        How about asking Europe to pay for rebuilding us for a change? We literally rebuilt them after wwii. If they can't keep nice things maybe they don't deserve them.

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    Ben Connelly

    “All this is good news, but it does not mean, as historian Adam Tooze warned in The New Statesman, that the West’s economic resources are going to be equal to Ukraine’s vast needs.”

    Wow.

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    DougAz

    It's an excellent but old idea. Kudos for supporting the Ukraine-Marshall plan

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    Mulecanter

    I certainly agree that Ukraine should be rebuilt with the world's help. However, victory is essential. I think NATO needs to think seriously about ending the Black Sea blockade in order to mitigate the world food shortage risk. Seems like an excellent and justifiable excuse to push back hard on Russia. I may be underestimating the risk of escalation but I have a hunch the adults in Russia have more fear of NATO than we give them credit for due to all their media bluster.

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    1. Emma

      Why do we need to rebuild anything? We have infrastructure issues here.

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  5. CatoTheElder

    Let’s help ‘em win the damn war first.

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    1. Emma

      What have they helped us with? Europe needs to handle its own

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      1. Chanterelle

        Avoiding another World War, avoiding the rise of more Western European totalitarian states, avoidimg nuclear holocaust, weakening the Soviet Union... there is more those are big & fairly obvious.
        Edit addition: We benefit economically from stability in their markets. The devastation of WWI led to the depression, it can be argued (it's been a long time since history class). The economic instability & demand for German reparations made Germany ripe for the rise of the Nazis. So helping Western Europe helped us, & helped the world. Also there are tremendous economic & diplomatic benefits to being someone who helps others. Good Will is actually very valuable. It is literally why we were considered the leader of the Free World, which is powerful.

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        1. Emma

          Europe divided the world up on a napkin forcing its own view of "nation states" not to spread love, peace, and liberty, but to take and control resources.

          You basically described the miserable results that destroyed half the world, and the consequences of such 100 years later.

          No need to continue subsidizing the nonsense.

          And what is "leading the free world " when at the time we denied basic human rights to anyone not white and lynched people. Oh and made postcards out of said lynching.

          But again, I love this romantic idea of it all. Must be nice.

          That narrative just ain't working anymore.

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          1. Chanterelle

            Thank you for reminding me, I failed to include my usual caveat about our many miscarriages of justice & failures to the founding ideals. I am not someone who leaves it totally out of view, or thinks it isn't as important. Quite the contrary. We have a lot to work on & to make ammends for. And if my only view was the way we helped the world, & profited from it, your assessment would be an indictment. Fortunately, that is not the case, at least for me. International Good Will has it's benefits including financial, which was your question. Did we or do we live up to the founding ideals? No. May we always strive to though. Fortunately, we can focus on many things at the same time, that's why there are committees in the legislative branch. I don't think everything the US has done has been correct (understatement). The Marshall plan specifically has a special place in my esteem. It was vastly beneficial for many. And I believe in a liberal democracy & rational thought tempered by valuing goodness & justice for all. Our system isn't perfect but it's the best there is so far & we can make it better.

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      2. CatoTheElder

        I have a completely different view of things, it seems.

        “With great power comes great responsibility.” Yes, it’s a quote from Spider-Man, but it’s also a principle that has been applied through the centuries. If there is such a thing as human society, in any broad sense, then it should also apply now, especially as we see/feel the globe growing smaller, with more, and more involved, even intimate, interactions between geographically distant places.

        The United States, if it is or ever has been a “shining city on a hill”, as has been said, is/has been such because of its incarnation and devotion to liberty and democracy, and more or less resolute opposition to despotism and tyrants.

        European nations, as a conglomerate, are our most important partners in all the really important ways. Amount of trade. Societal norms, legal and political systems, recognition of individual liberties, and more.

        If, in a world also populated by a fair number of tyrannical or despotic nations, we do not ally ourselves with nations who cherish what we cherish—i.e., human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, etc.—we will find, eventually, that here, there, and everywhere, we will be threatened by those who view genocide as simply one technique in the diplomatic/governmental playbook, who are not as averse to torture, imprisonment, or worse, of individuals speaking out of turn, and more.

        When a gang of thugs sets fire to a neighbors house, for us to do nothing is…less than proper concern for one’s neighbor demands. To do no more than offer an extra hose isn’t much better.

        Then there’s the simple matter of what Europe has helped us with, I guess. Which I consider largely irrelevant, but even if it is important, only the most short-sighted evaluation and accounting would fail to note or discover the innumerable benefits we have received by dint of cooperation and comity with western Europe.

        In addition, there’s always the question of what benefits our continued or further devotion to freedom-loving states in Europe might accrue to us. I suspect “quite a lot” would be the short answer.

        Thus, in short, I think it both a duty to aid one’s neighbor in a crisis, and in our interests to see that Ukraine remains on its (granted, early) course to democracy and human liberties, and that Russia both fails in, and is rebuked for, its attempt to take from others whatever it might want, by force of whatever kind is necessary.

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        1. Emma

          I understand the sentiments, but there are many peoples throughout the world seeking liberty and we don't subsidize it or help it be, or help in its continuation. We didn't do it for Haiti when they declared independence, we didn't do it on the African continent. And Europe has not been a fan of individual liberty. To be frank, Europe is the reason for much of the disaster we see folding now. You can't believe in liberty and use force to control half the planet then get upset when karma cokes knocking. If they want liberty they need to do it for themselves.

          We fought a civil war. Another hundred years of brutality followed. We are not the saviors here. They want liberty they need to figure it out on their own continent. They are no more worthy than the millions of others with the same ambitions. And Europe prefers to be coddled and constantly dependent on the U.S. enough.

          The country is not attached to some romantic vision of a close relationship with Europe like it was during wwii. And a stretch to say we even share individual liberty given their (and ours) growing demand for government.

          If they can't maintain their own independence without foreign support it will never be free anyways.

          And what are we getting for this? Nada

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          1. CatoTheElder

            I disagree on many points. Firstly it’s quite important to note that many European countries are not just contributing to Ukraine’s defense, but doing so in ways and amount disproportionately more effective and larger than would be suggested by their commitment in recent decades to their own defense; German defense spending re: this, and now in general, is the best example of this.

            Secondly, whilst Europe has, over the centuries, certainly had its ups and downs, fits and starts and flat-out convulsions over individual liberties, the continent is certainly more of such a mold than any other, with the exception of our own.

            Thirdly, to give Europe the lion’s share of the blame for “the disaster we see [un]folding now” is, I believe, a gross misreading of the situation. Whilst Putin was pleased to see that neither the EU nor NATO, nor the US alone, did much other than wring hands when he took Crimea in ‘14, that he did so, and is now doing his slightly unlevel best to take much of the rest of Ukraine (leaving no more than a smoldering pile of wreckage as remains), is, far and away, by and large, and without a doubt his/Russia’s responsibility.

            Fourth, as I cut short the number of items I will address here, the maintenance of independence “without foreign support” isn’t a worthy criterion by which to judge. That the rest of Europe needed American help against the Axis Powers—including Germany and Italy, of course, but with Germany being “le grande provocateur”—certainly did not mean that France, Great Britain, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Norway, and many more nations “would never be free”, any more than we could have defeated the Nazis and Japan alone.

            Lastly, I find I cannot quite stop there. I think it obvious that we are getting much from our efforts already, and, should Ukraine win a war that it seems “karma” should be wanting them to win, I think it equally obvious we will get much more. Not all of it directly, but all of it valuable.

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      MatthewRobin

      On that note, you should check out my Week 13 recap of the war in Ukraine.

      https://infraredline.substack.com/p/warzone-ukraine-week-13-update

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