The Men Responsible

The Marshall Plan Takes Form

• In the Grand Dining Room of the French Foreign Office, the Conference for European Economic Cooperation meets, July, 1947
• The President signs the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948
• The trade union men of Europe get together to talk over participation in the Marshall Plan
• The lights burn past midnight at OEEC offices in Paris

American Goods Begin to Flow

• Sulphur to Manchester
• Trucks to Rotterdam
• Boiler tubes to Oslo
• Grain to Tunis

Rebuilding from the Wreckage of War

Europe in 1947

• Kirkines, Norway, had scarcely begun to rise from the ground
• A new citizen of Essen, Germany, looks at a world of rubble

The Marshall Plan Takes Over

• This Belgian metal works could not contribute to recovery until put in shape by help from the Marshall Plan
• Walcheren, Holland, as it looked after the Allies bombed the dyke...
• ...and as it [Walcheren, Holland] looks reclaimed with Marshall Plan aid

The Roadways Are Opened Up

• A road in Palermo
• Dunkirk Harbor
• The Corinth canal
• Paris rail yards

The Wheels of Industry Begin To Turn

• Textiles in France
• Coal mining in England
• Shipbuilding in Italy
• Electric power for Paris
• Metalworks in Belgium
• Mining iron in Norway

The Farms Increase Their Yield

• In Hertfordshire, England, this American hay-baler does the work of six
• Koula, a Missouri mule, pulls in tandem with a Greek grey mare
• Pruning vines in Burgundy which have been sprayed with copper sulfate—copper from ECA
• Dry soil in Tunisia is plowed deep, with an American caterpillar tractor

Europe Gets Houses To Live In

• Norway—wooden houses to replace those the Germans destroyed
• Trieste: Modern apartments for workers
• A “counterpart” housing project in Italy
• Miner's homes in Holland of concrete blocks made with an American block molding machine

Stronger Bodies and Calmer Minds

• Greece: The personal problem of spaghetti
• Germany: Miners must eat to work
• Holland: The Red Cross collects plasma with a Marshall Plan truck
• England: Something for everybody
• France: Streptomycin for tuberculosis

Changing the Face of a Continent

• BEFORE: This was the island of Urk in the Zuyder Zee in 1938. A few fishermen made a living here...
• AFTER: The island [Urk, in the Zuyder Zee] is gone in 1949. Farmlands support a bustling community.
• Reclaiming land in the Svonea area of Italy
• The Genissiat Dam on the Upper Rhome is part of the largest construction project under way in the world today.

Looking Ahead: Towards Closing the Dollar Gap

• Austrian electrical engineers study a new generator at Schenectady, N.Y.
• One of 33 Dutch farm boys visiting America learns to operate a self-propelled combine on a Pennsylvania farm
• American tourists—here shown studying an Alpine ski slope—are visiting a renovated Europe in ever-increasing numbers
• A 1950's display in Macy's

The Marshall Plan Is for People

• Manchester dockworkers take time out from unloading a U.S. ship
• Flour from Higginsville, Missouri, goes down the hatch in Greece
• A Belgian workman by a Bessemer converter
• Aase Nielsen moves into her family's new house in Copenhagen
• Mme. Marie Martin, 71, weaves Marshall Plan cotton in France
• A Turkish draftsman works on plans for new mines