European Recovery Program

(ERP)

   Popularly known as the Marshall Plan, the ERP was intended to help contain communism abroad by rebuilding the economies of postwar Europe and averting a return to the conditions that brought about the Great Depression and World War II. The program of aid was announced by Secretary of State George C. Marshall at Harvard University on 5 June 1947. Following a conference in Paris in July through September, a four-year recovery plan was agreed on, and President Harry S. Truman approved the first appropriation bill in April 1948. Between 1948 and 1952, $13 million of aid in different forms was provided to participating Western European countries (and the western zone of Germany) through the Committee for European Economic Cooperation and the U.S. Economic Cooperation Administration. The resultant move to unify the economy of West Germany led to the Berlin Blockade in 1948 and the formation of a Soviet-led economic bloc in Eastern Europe, the Committee for Mutual Economic Assistance or COMECON. The Marshall Plan prevented the economic collapse of Western Europe and spurred economic recovery and the move toward economic integration. See also COLD WAR.