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European Recovery Program Overview

The document summarizes a student project about the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). It discusses how the students chose this topic due to a family connection to WWII and an interest in US foreign policy. It describes the research process, including preliminary research on the context and impact of the Marshall Plan. The students decided to create a website to organize their research, which included text, images, documents, and other media. The summary concludes that the Marshall Plan related to the theme of rights and responsibilities, as the US took responsibility to help Europe recover economically and prevent the spread of communism in order to protect Europeans' democratic rights.

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6 views2 pages

European Recovery Program Overview

The document summarizes a student project about the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). It discusses how the students chose this topic due to a family connection to WWII and an interest in US foreign policy. It describes the research process, including preliminary research on the context and impact of the Marshall Plan. The students decided to create a website to organize their research, which included text, images, documents, and other media. The summary concludes that the Marshall Plan related to the theme of rights and responsibilities, as the US took responsibility to help Europe recover economically and prevent the spread of communism in order to protect Europeans' democratic rights.

Uploaded by

sydneyemma
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

European Recovery Program of 1947: Rebuilding Europe

Emma Bakken & Sydney Melnick Senior Division Group Website

Process Paper We chose the topic of the European Recovery Program (The Marshall Plan) because one of our grandparents served in World War II as part of the D-Day invasion. We were also interested in U.S. foreign policy, so as we looked further into it, we found that this was a good topic to combine the two ideas. Additionally, we are both in speech and debate, which fueled our interest on the history of United States foreign policy, and how past events have brought the United States to its position in the international community today. We realized the huge impact the ERP had on not only the fate of Europe, but also the future of United States granting aid. In order to conduct our research in the most thorough way possible, we took multiple steps. First, we completed preliminary research on what the ERP was, as well as its historical context. This entailed watching videos on World War II, reading articles, and checking out books on the Marshall Plan, Cold War, and WWII. As we delved deeper into the topic, we began finding primary documents about other countries reactions, government policies, and the economic expenditures made by the US. Finally, we investigated the events surrounding the Marshall Plan, and what impact it had on bettering Europes economic, social, and political stability. We conducted an interview with a history professor, and found more sources, both primary and secondary. Originally, we planned on doing a documentary, but upon closer inspection it wouldnt allow us to have the organization or information displayed to our liking. We then decided on a website because it had all of the combined aspects we wanted to include. We could incorporate text, pictures, quotes, documents, and even videos or audio into one concise presentation. Once we decided to do a website, we created pages and tabs in order to split up our information both chronologically, and in the most visually appealing way possible. We added our information under the page that it applied to, and made sure that every piece related back to our thesis, which is the first thing that is seen on the website. Finally, there are many ways in which the Marshall Plan can be related back to the NHD theme of rights and responsibilities. After becoming aware of how devastating the war truly was, the United States felt it was their responsibility and moral obligation as a country thriving economically to step in and grant aid to Western Europe. Because the Europes infrastructure, governments, production, and markets were deteriorated, the U.S. felt responsible to step in assist struggling economies. One of the goals of this intervention was to prevent communism from spreading across the entirety of Europe, which would completely alter the basic democratic rights of European citizens if successful. Since the war had already caused so much damage, the US could not risk communism taking away rights as well. Both rights and responsibilities played a huge role in US involvement through the ERP. (Word Count: 500)

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