Marshall Plan

>>1578085
>I keep reading that the Marshall plan was key to Germany's economic recovery after the war. Is this just sticky Cold War propaganda, or is there actual truth to it?
It's about half-and-half. One needs only look at the halves of Germany to see this. The USSR kept trying to take shit away from the DDR. The USA poured resources into the FRG. DDR still fared very well compared to pretty much any other Soviet state, however, it was not anywhere near as prosperous as the FRG. So it was important, but Germany being Germany was another important factor.

>As far as I can tell the Allies extorted much more wealth from Germany than the US lended to it between 48-52?
It's called an investment with positive returns.

>>1578122
>One needs only look at the halves of Germany to see this. The USSR kept trying to take shit away from the DDR. The USA poured resources into the FRG. DDR still fared very well compared to pretty much any other Soviet state, however, it was not anywhere near as prosperous as the FRG.

You attribute that to the MP? Not the difference between capitalist and socialist economy?

>>1578085
>I keep reading that the Marshall plan was key to Germany's economic recovery after the war
Stop reading American sources then. Marshall plan mattered only in the lens of American propaganda, Germany and the rest of Europe were already recovering and rebuilding when it got instituted and it represented, at best, a small bump.

Also the plan isn't extensive enough to seriously rebuild the economy by itself, not when it comes to some of the largest economies in the world. You can see it with Greece today, the EU, the largest single economy in the world, barely managed to bail out Greece and Greece itself is a relatively minor economic force. All of EU could never bail out Spain or Italy not to mention France or Germany.

Don't get me wrong, Marshall plan helped but it's been MASSIVELY overplayed by American Cold War propaganda as some sort of crucial element of Europe's post war economic miracle which, frankly, I consider insulting. Europe's post war miracle came because of Europe and not because of America.

>>1578153
>Europe's post war economic miracle

Wouldn't have happened had lend-lease aid from the US and Britain not allowed the allies to win the war in the first place.

>>1578340
I mean, if you want to go down the chain of casualty America never would have become major economic power without massive amount of British capital invested in the early and mid 19th century.

The point is that the discussion is on Marshall Plan and Marshall Plan was nice but not really relevant part of the post war recovery.

>>1578368

That recovery was able to occur because the provisions of LL were intentionally designed to not be an immediate burden on the 39 nations that received it, to avoid the international debt experience of the first world war, and so payment might be made in kind or other benefits rather than in dollars.

The only country that even came close in return Lend Lease was Australia.

The concept of aid without payment or loan commitment was unprecedented in history. Limiting postwar recovery to just the Marshall Plan and "bailing out countries" ignores it and the larger situation completely.