[nonesuch]

Whenever I begin to wallow in the shame and embarrassment of being American, which is to say, a morally bankrupt nation, I pull myself out by thinking of the Marshall Plan. I don't think of it as altruistic or having 'saved' western Europe but of boosting the domestic economy and European recovery as well as hedging against communism (win, win, win). But was the Marshall Plan all that? Here's the piñata- whack it if you will!

[redcarpet]

To re-constitute the European economies, with Axis figures and collaborators re-installed with inherent US-advantage with no-bid contracts and free resources and so on, guaranteed portion from European colonies.

The Marshall Plan was the complete opposite of what is portrayed, as has been posted in another thread in this section.

So unless one is an imperialist, it is something to be ashamed of at such brazen selfish- power grabbing by a state that had by default become the #1 world power makes a second lunge. As if it wasn't fat already from the war.

[layman]

It was successful Keynesianism and win win win like you suggest. Europe and Japan both had high quality human capital but decimated infrastructure. With peace all they could do was grow and grow fast with the right stimulus.

Part of it was to offset capital flight from Europe too. America has always been a trading nation and the people in power were smart enough to know they needed this. If Europe and Japan had either gone into chaos or the communist block, Americas economy, and geopolitical situation, would be in big trouble.