the historical significance of the marshall plan

The European Recovery Program (ERP) was proposed in 1947 by U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall and was implemented from 1948 through 1952. The Marshall Plan, as the program was soon generally known in honor of its originator, was at the time the largest project for international economic cooperation ever to be organized during peacetime. The United States and sixteen European countries participated in the recovery program from 1948 through 1952: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, (West) Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey. The financial volume of the program was $14 billion. This was a considerable sum for that time; according to various estimates, this expenditure in current prices would equal approximately $70 billion to 90 billion. Since then, there have been larger multinational economic projects, but none has attained the prestige of the Marshall Plan. In economic crisis situations, there have been and are frequent calls for a replay of the successful Marshall Plan scenario. A Marshall Plan for the Third World has been proposed as well as a Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe.