The Marshall Plan
After the Second Great War, many of the cities of the great continent of Europe laid in waste. Countries like France and Germany were devastated by the war and there seemed to be no help in site. Thankfully, Secretary of State George C. Marshall came up with a plan that could help rebuild the war torn European nations. He told people, "do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace." He called this resolution the Marshall Plan and it immediately took effect in 1948. He believed that the wellbeing of the entire world rested on the shoulders of a stable and sound economy. If Europe was to remain in the state that it was currently in, war would be inevitable.
The U.S. was gathering money and shipping it overseas to prevent another world war. By 1952, the United States had channeled over thirteen billion dollars to sixteen different European nations. It provided technical support to the people and gave money to cities to help them rebuild and become the wonderful metropolises that they used to be. During the program's four years, participating countries saw their gross national product rise more than 30 percent and industrial production increase by 40 percent over prewar levels. The Marshall Plan was seen widely as a success in both hemispheres of the earth. There was no greater admirer of the Marshall plan than British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to whom it represented, "the most unsordid act in history."