"Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist." — George C. Marshall, Harvard Address, June 5, 1947
Marshall's framing of the program as directed against "hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos" rather than any country was primarily intended to:
- Acheck_circle
Make the aid politically acceptable to recipients including potentially the Soviet bloc while still serving containment goals
- B
Secure United Nations endorsement under the Atlantic Charter
- C
Prevent congressional Republicans from invoking the Neutrality Acts
- D
Avoid violating the terms of the 1945 Yalta agreements
Explanation
Marshall framed the European Recovery Program in humanitarian terms so that even Eastern European states could nominally participate, though Stalin forbade their acceptance. The economic rationale also helped sell the program domestically as more than overt anti-communism.