All language subtitles for Cold War - S01E03 - Marshall Plan (1947–1952) (480p x265 EDGE2020).eng

NARRATION:
Italy.

1947.

Two years since
the war's end.

Poverty plagues much
of the country-

fertile ground for
communism which promises a

solution to economic
ills and injustice.

GIUSEPPE MAINARDI:
[speaking Italian ]

Life was extremely hard.

Besides the
political tensions,

there was always a sense of
having to tighten your belt.

We were hungry.
We were always hungry.

As membership of the
Communist Party

reaches two million,
America fears that Italy,

and western Europe,
could fall to communism.

PRESIDENT TRUMAN:
The seeds of totalitarian

regimes are nurtured by
misery and want.

They spread and grow in the
evil soil of poverty and strife.

They reach their full growth

when the hope of a people
for a better life has died.

We must keep
that hope alive.

NARRATION:
May Day in Moscow, 1947.

The Red Army was the largest
fighting force in the world.

Stalin had established control
over most of eastern Europe.

The Soviet Union offered an
alternative model for society -

public ownership and
a centrally planned economy;

in contrast to the
western belief in

a mixed economy
and free trade.

PROF. THEODORE GEIGER:
There was great alarm at the

deteriorating political

and economic situation
and fear that the domestic

communists in Western
Europe would become so active

and so disruptive that it would lead
to economic collapse which was

probably going to happen anyway
unless something was done.

And this would give an
opportunity to the Soviets

to extend their influence
in Western Europe.

NARRATION:
In February 1947,

a financial crisis forced the
British government to tell

Washington they were ending
aid to Greece and Turkey.

The Administration feared the
eastern Mediterranean might

fall to communism.

Truman used this opportunity
to take the offensive.

The free peoples of the world

look to us for support

in maintaining
their freedoms.

If we falter
in our leadership

we may endanger
the peace of the world

and we shall
surely endanger the

welfare of this nation.

GEORGE ELSEY:
I was there in the balcony

listening and I was struck
by the absolute concentrated

attention of the Congress.

On this occasion
everyone in the hall realized

that this was a major
historical event.

I therefore ask the Congress to
provide authority for assistance

to Greece and Turkey
in the amount of $400 million

for the period ending
June 30th 1948.

NARRATION:
Truman pitched the struggle

for the first time as
between freedom and tyranny,

the West and the communists.

Truman had to
persuade the often

isolationist
Congress to act.

The anti-communism of the
Truman Doctrine did just that.

The Truman speech reflected very
clearly Truman's own character.

He liked to see
issues very clearly

and to come up with
clean out answers.

NARRATION:
After five and a half years of a war

to defeat fascism,
Europe was bankrupt.

Industry lay in ruins;
homes were in rubble.

People struggled to survive.

The Communist Party
which had fought fascism

attracted new recruits.

Prof. MARIANNE DEBOUZY:
The appeal of communism

to young people and
to students was that of

a hope that it was possible to
create a classless society.

Many people believed that
communism was going

to create a better world,
better than the one that

existed before the war.

This was the only party

that you could join if you
wanted to change the world.

NARRATION:
The man called on by Truman

to face the communist
threat was the

newly appointed
Secretary of State,

General Marshall,
the wartime military leader.

He would plan the
United States response.

GEORGE McGHEE:
Marshall was an extraordinary man,

I've never known
anyone like him.

He in many respects
was a very austere,

unapproachable man.

He never allowed anyone
to call him George Marshall,

including the President.

When the President asked
him if he should,

he said 'No, General
Marshall will do'.

He exuded leadership
and character.

NARRATION:
In March, Marshall met

Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov
at a meeting in Moscow.

Britain and France
were there too.

'The Big Four' tried to
agree on the future of Germany.

Despite warm Russian
hospitality,

weeks of meetings
got nowhere.

THEODORE GEIGER:
Marshall made one last effort.

He had an interview
with Stalin in the Kremlin.

And that interview
convinced Marshall

that what the Soviets
were doing

were stalling
for time

in order for the situation in
western and central Europe

to become more
and more adverse

so that popular unrest would
become greater and greater-

the communists would grow
in strength and that maybe

communist regimes would be
come to power in western Europe

without the Red Army
having to invade.

NARRATION:
At the heart of Europe's

problems lay the question
of a defeated Germany.

Stalin wanted to keep
Germany on its knees,

concerned that otherwise
it would rise up one day

and threaten the
Soviet Union again.

The Americans believed
that Germany must get back

on its feet,

before there could be a full
European recovery.

Marshall was now convinced

of the need to act quickly.

On his return from Moscow,
he instructed

the State Department to
begin preparing ideas for a

European Rescue Plan.

Billions of dollars
would be needed.

Would Congress approve
this enormous cost?

The whole situation is
critical in the extreme.

We happen to be,

very fortunately
for ourselves,

the strongest nation
in the world today,

certainly economically.

NARRATION: The urgency was
such that Marshall rushed forward

his Plan.

He announced it at
an awards ceremony

at Harvard University.

There were no
film cameras present.

Marshall proposed
aid to Europe on a vast scale,

and invited the
Europeans to respond.

Ernest Bevin, the
British Foreign Secretary,

immediately realized the
importance of Marshall's speech.

He had always
wanted to involve

the Americans in
European reconstruction.

SIR FRANK ROBERTS:
When Marshall made his

big speech in Harvard,

Bevin seized upon it

and bringing the French
in at the same time,

welcomed it.

And out of that they
built up what became the

European Recovery Program

and the recovery
of western Europe.

NARRATION: The Soviet
economy also desperately needed

investment to make up
for the ravages of

four years of war
on Russian soil.

In theory, the Marshall Plan
was open to both east and west.

But would
Stalin participate?

[speaking Russian ]
Stalin was always

suspicious and he wasn't
keen on it from the very start.

He said:
'Just you watch it.

The situation
is quite different

from the war-time lend-lease
American assistance to us.

With the Truman Doctrine
in place as well,

they don't really
want to help us.

They just want to tear the
people's democracies away

from our sphere
of influence,

to win them over,

to infiltrate them,

to pull them away from the
Soviet Union.'

NARRATION: In Paris, a Foreign
Ministers' Conference opened to frame

the European response
to the Marshall Plan.

Despite Stalin's caution,
Molotov and a large Soviet

delegation turned up
at the Conference table.

[speaking Russian ]

Molotov listened to all
the reports and proposals,

although he felt it was clearly
not that straight forward,

that the aid would be tied
up with certain conditions.

NARRATION:
Throughout the Cold War,

spies were used
by both sides.

At this critical point,
spies in London were passing

their Soviet controllers,
document after document.

Dozens.

I mean all, the, uh,

the diplomatic going in and
out from the Foreign Office.

We had access to everything.

NARRATION:
After six days of meetings in Paris,

Soviet intelligence
gave Stalin

new information about
the Marshall Plan.

Our intelligence
service knew everything.

They read all the documents
which were produced

by the United States,
by the government of

the United States,

which were sent to almost
all European countries,

including the government
of the Soviet Union,

but and other
documents which were not

sent to the Soviet Union.

[speaking Russian ]

This information confirmed
that America didn't

really want us to
participate in it.

They just made this
demonstrative gesture in order

not to scare away those
already dealing with them.

Stalin abruptly
told Molotov to pull

out of the negotiations.

NARRATION: As Molotov left
the Paris meeting he accused

the west of dividing Europe
into two hostile camps.

GEORGE ELSEY:
There never was any thought

that the Soviets
would actually

join the Marshall Plan.

But it was a desirable
step to persuade

the world that we really
were being altruistic here,

this was not
basically an anti-Communist,

anti-Soviet measure,

and should by some miracle
the Soviets themselves join

or some of their
satellite countries,

we would have
welcomed them in it.

But we didn't think that
was a realistic possibility.

NARRATION:
In Prague, the Czechoslovaks

discussed whether to
join the Marshall Plan.

In the democratically
elected government,

a third of the ministers
were communists.

The reactions were
absolutely positive,

even the communist
ministers in the government,

in the
Czechoslovak government,

agreed with our
participation in Paris;

that means to attend
the Conference

to prepare
the Marshall Plan.

The decision of
the Czechoslovak

government was
absolutely unanimous.

NARRATION:
Stalin summoned the

Czech Prime Minister
Kiement Gottvvaid, to Moscow.

With him came the Foreign
Minister, Jan Masaryk.

They arrived on the
afternoon of July 9th-

and waited.

ANTONIN SUM:
It was about 11 o'clock

in the evening
that means before midnight,

somebody came that they

should immediately
go over to Kremlin.

But the principal,

question put before them,
was that the Czechoslovak

delegation shouldn't
go over to Paris to

attend to the conference
on the Marshall Plan.

[speaking Russian ]

Stalin said: 'If by 4:00am on
the 11th of July

you have not refused to attend,
then be prepared -

this will have
serious consequences

on our relations
with you'.

ANTONIN SUM:
Stalin was quite clear,

quite rough and
he gave the ultimatum

of four hours to our delegation,

to say their decision.

Finally the same government

which accepted unanimously they
accepted the presence in Paris,

rejected it.

As far as the
Marshall Plan is concerned,

there was no
normal discussion.

There was practically
only a quite clear order:

you have to do it
and if you do not do it

so you are
not our friends,

you are betraying
the Union,

Soviet Union and
so on and so on.

So it was quite clear.

NARRATION:
When the Czech delegation left Moscow,

Gottvvald read a prepared statement.

He couldn't hide
his discomfort.

NARRATION:
Jan Masaryk

was shattered by
the experience.

ANTONIN SUM: When he came out
from the plane, he said quite clearly,

"I was going to Moscow
as the minister

of a free state
and I am returning as

'Stalin's slave.

NARRATION:
In September 1947,

sixteen European nations signed
up for the Marshall Plan,

and requested
20 billion dollars of aid.

The western alliance
began to take shape.

The battle-lines of the Cold War
were being drawn.

JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH: The primary
purpose was compassionate, good willed.

The notion that our former allies

needed to have the help
of the United States.

[speaking Russian ]

The policy of
the Marshall Plan

was seen in the Soviet Union

as the Americans wanting to impose

their influence over the
countries to which they gave

Marshall Aid.

The Soviet Union could
not accept that,

believing it to be an aggressive
act on behalf of the Americans.

That is why the Marshall Plan
was never accepted

in our country.

NARRATION:
That September 1947,

Stalin revived the pre-war
Communist International

as the Cominform.

Through it,
Stalin planned to control

the countries of
the eastern bloc.

He also instructed Communist
Parties in the West

to take the initiative
in seizing power.

NARRATION:
In American propaganda,

the Cominform was
represented as a sinister,

shadowy conspiracy of evil.

But, its economic associate,
Come con,

offered Russian aid to
eastern bloc countries-

sending grain to Czechoslovakia
after a bad harvest.

DMITRI SUKHANOV:
[speaking Russian ]

Both Cominforn and Come con

were a direct response
to the Marshall Plan.

On the one hand, the Comihform
would follow the political,

ideological line the Soviet
Union wanted to adopt

in the socialist
countries.

On the other hand,
the aim of Come con was to

provide economic
assistance in order

to prevent these
countries from being torn

from our sphere
of influence.

NARRATION:
February 1948:

the communists reach for
power in Czechoslovakia.

Workers' militias
go on the march.

Non communists are arrested.

Action Committees take over the
police and the lab our unions.

President Benes capitulates.

The red flag flies in
the center of Prague.

In just five days
the communists took over

Czechoslovakiefs government.

Stalin's rule was
imposed on the Czechs.

Two weeks later,

Jan Masaryk fell
to his death from

the window of
his apartment in Prague.

The argument still rages:
did he despair and jump?

Or was he pushed?

Masaryk was the son
of Thomas Masaryk

the founder of
the Czech state.

His funeral symbolized the end
of a free Czechoslovakia.

ANTONIN SUM:
After the death of the minister

and there were really tens of
thousands of people who were

coming to say farewell
to the minister,

their last farewell.

They were crying,
and flowers

and so on and so on.

But the general
persuasion was that

this was really the end.

We felt it like that
unfortunately.

The Communist take-over in
Prague shocked Washington.

There, the case for Marshall
aid was still being argued,

before a partly isolationist Congress.

The Soviet Union
and its agents

have destroyed the independence
and democratic character of a

whole series of nations in
eastern and central Europe.

It is this ruthless course of
action and the clear design

to extend it to the remaining
free nations of Europe that have

brought about the critical
situation in Europe today.

Prof. THEODORE GEIGER:
It was touch and go when both

Houses of Congress

were finally considering
the legislation.

Then the Czech
coup occurred

and that was
the final straw

because even
the isolationists

or most of them
could see that

the Russians
were advancing westward

with the take-over in
Czechoslovakia and so on.

So it helped very importantly
to pass the legislation.

NARRATION:
On April 3rd 1948,

Congress approved five billion
dollars of Marshall aid.

NARRATION:
The Marshall Plan was born from

the need to
feed the hungry,

and to prevent communism
spreading over Europe.

Twenty percent of
the aid were loans,

eighty percent grants.

The first shipments were
foods and fertilizers.

Next, machines to improve
agricultural efficiency.

In the four years of the Plan,
the Marshall agency spent

thirteen and a half billion
dollars, in sixteen countries.

Fewer people
spent more money

in that agency than ever before

or since in
the United States government.

It was an extraordinary
performance.

NARRATION: Europe's purchase
of American goods and machinery

re-directed many
Marshall aid dollars

back into American industry,
fueling a post-war boom.

MARIANNE DEBOUZY:
Most people I knew felt

that the generosity of Americans
was a self-serving one,

in the sense
that they thought of Europe

as an outlet
for their goods,

as a market to
export stuff

and we thought that
we could see that in

the types of things that
they wanted us to buy

with the money
that they lent us.

NARRATION: One of the countries
most in need of help was Greece-

devastated by the Nazi
occupation

and years of civil war.

In the north,
government troops

still hunted out
communist guerrillas.

JAMES WARREN:
Greece of course emerged

from the war in
a terrible state.

Probably two thousand of the

nation's villages
had been razed and...

burnt to the ground by the
reprisal raids of the Nazis.

The consequence of the
civil war was to add to that

terribly shredded kind
of social fabric.

NARRATION: During the
four years of the Marshall Plan,

Greece received nearly
700 million dollars

of economic assistance.

Young Americans
were thrust into

positions of heavy
responsibility.

JAMES WARREN:
I was the youngest member

of the Marshall Plan
mission in Greece.

I arrived there
at the age of 23,

and to my astonishment

a year later, at aged 24

there I was in charge of
the Greek import program.

The range of projects
which we engaged in

were all
over the map and

all over every single
sector of the economy.

And one could say
that America fed

and fuel led
and clothed the Greek nation.

NARRATION: In the hill
villages of northern Greece

emerging from civil war,

the Marshall
planners came up with

a scheme to meet
a local need.

JAMES WARREN:
During the war

and during
the civil war one of

the major elements destroyed
was the farm draught animals.

One of the decisions
was to import

that which we
were accustomed to,

which was
the Missouri mule.

And the Missouri mule is not
only cantankerous - he's big.

NARRATION: American mules arrived
in Greece, after a long sea voyage.

DELI HUSEYIN:
[speaking Greek]

The village leaders informed
us about the mules.

We went down to the
co-operative in Xanthi.

And that's where they
gave us the mules.

NARRATION:
The farmers drew lots.

DELI HUSEYIN: [speaking Greek]
You took a piece of paper

with the number of
mule written on it.

Then you went
to the overseer.

He looked at your
paper and gave

the mule with that
number to you.

And then he said, 'Take it.'

NARRATION: The only problem
was that the American mules were

very much larger than
the animals local

farmers were used to.

MEHMET EMIN: [speaking
Greek] The mules were very good.

They were a bit wild,

but slowly we got them
under control.

They were fat and big,

And we began to use
the mules to plough.

DELI HUSEYIN: [speaking
Greek] They were very good.

They gave me a superb mule.
And we started to plough.

MEHMET EMIN: [speaking Greek]
The American mules were best.

They were from the stable,
well-fed and fat.

You could put 200 kilos on
them and they could take it.

Our own mules were small.

We were very thankful.

How could we not be
thankful since we had nothing.

'Long live America'.

NARRATION:
Industrial Europe faced other problems.

France, 1947.

Workers at the Renault
factory near Paris

went factory on strike.

When communist ministers
backed them,

they were expelled
from the government.

Several months of
disruption followed.

Strikes spread.

In the fall, three million
workers took to the streets.

MARIANNE DEBOUZY:
We had a lot of sympathy for

the strikers because we felt
that they were poorly paid

and we felt that
the government wouldn't do

anything for them unless they
put pressure on the government.

NARRATION:
Ministers feared civil war.

The United States
made it clear to Paris

that there would be no
Marshall aid to French industry

until the government had the
communist threat under control.

Acts of sabotage
culminated in the derailing

of an express train -
causing 20 deaths.

The strikers lost
popular support.

The disruption ended.

The French Fourth Republic
would now receive Marshall aid:

2.7 billion dollars of it.

Yugoslavia had gone communist
at the end of the war,

without help from Moscow.

The Yugoslav leader, Tito,
became an ally of Stalin.

But it was an uneasy alliance.

[speaking Russian ]

Tito, in Stalin's view, was acquiring
more and more an independent

position in various ways
including international affairs.

Tito didn't consult or seek
advice from Stalin in advance.

He was moving further and

further away from
the socialist direction.

NARRATION:
The split came in 1948

when Stalin expelled
Tito from the Cominforn.

Following the rift,
Tito turned to the West.

After a series of
disastrous harvests,

Tito requested American
economic assistance,

In 1950,
he signed an agreement

with the United States
government.

Yugoslavia emerged from
behind the Iron Curtain.

American agents
distributed more

than $150 million
worth of aid.

THEODORE GEIGER:
This was not totally

an altruistic effort.

The United States had
enormous self-interest

in the success of
the Marshall Plan.

Otherwise it wouldn't
have been undertaken.

America had a vital stake in the
recovery of Western Europe.

If the United States had
allowed Europe to collapse,

it would have cost us much
more than what we spent

on the Marshall Plan.

We were doing well
by doing good.

NARRATION:
But as well as 'doing good',

Washington was
preparing other tactics.

In Italy by 1948,
the Communist Party led by

Togliatti dominated the
left-wing Popular Front.

The Christian Democrats, led by
De Gasperi, ran the government.

In April, the first general
election since the war

raised expectations of a
communist victory

through the ballot box.

[speaking Italian ]

I expected the Popular Front,

the union of all
the parties of the left,

to win the election.

This union of the left
had to get together

to counter-balance the
Christian Democrats

and the forces
of the right.

NARRATION:
Some Italians feared

a communist victory.

GIOVANNI AGNELLI:
That election could have been

a touch and go election between
Italy staying on one side of

the world or the other
side of the world.

First of all, I think,
it would have been a

tragedy for Italy,

but I think it would have
been a tragedy for Europe,

I think it would have been a
tragedy for the Mediterranean,

and should have been
a setback for America.

NARRATION:
In the United States

a campaign was orchestrated to
persuade Italian-Americans

to write to relatives urging
them not to vote Communist.

Ten million letters were sent.

Voices Montage:
"Dear cousin Maria,

Have you thought what a
communist victory would

mean for Italy?

It would be terrible..."

"...Italy would be ruled
direct from the Kremlin.

Look what happened in
Czechoslovakia

"...You must realize
how serious this situation is.

You should see what the
papers are saying here..."

"...Listen to us.

I urge you not to vote
communist in the elections.

Your cousin, Luigi."

GIULIO ANDREOTTI:
[speaking Italian ]

it was a very
intelligent initiative

because it got through
to the families directly.

After half a century
of emigration there were

hundreds of thousands of
Italian families in America.

Soto receive a letter of
encouragement from them,

a letter stating that
they shouldn't vote for

the Communist Party, well,
that was very influential.

NARRATION:
Letter writing was not enough.

The newly created CIA,
decided to take the offensive.

What the CIA
needed was authority

to develop a program
of covert action.

General Marshall
knew that the situation

in Italy was critical.

The largest communist
party in the world

outside of
the Soviet empire.

Not having an
organization and knowing

that the State Dept could
hot achieve the things that

he knew had to be done,
he personally said

'We must explore the means
of getting authority

to carry out a covert
action program

that would challenge this
tremendous communist threat.'

NARRATION: This lead to a
debate within the young CIA.

Did it have the legal authority
to carry out covert operations?

CIA lawyers
studied the wording

of the new
National Security Act.

F. MARK WYATT: if the President
of the National Security Council,

the Head of
the National Security Council,

is the
President of the United States,

and if he specifically directs
the CIA under Hillenkoetter

to carry out operations to help
democratic parties and

if the Congress
that was put in,

if the Congress gives the

money to support
such a thing,

then the authority
is there

and that was
the green light.

NARRATION:
The CIA then intervened.

It began covert operations in
support of anti-Communists

and of the Christian
Democrat Party.

F. MARK WYATT:
I was in that branch of the CIA

at the time that had
to rush into the breach

without training
in covert action

And we had bags of money
that we delivered to

selected politicians to defray
their political expenses,

their campaign
expenses for posters,

for pamphlets.

GIULIO ANDREOTTI:
[speaking Italian ]

Personally,
I'm not aware of that.

It was spoken of but
I don't know anything about it

because I was never directly
involved in party affairs.

NARRATION:
The Church too, mounted a powerful

campaign against
the communists.

PADRE LUCIO MIGLIACCIO:
[speaking Italian ] Pope Pius XII

was very concerned about
the Communist Party -

not so much
about their politics,

he was concerned
about their doctrine and,

as Pope, Pius XII had to be
concerned about what was

happening in Italy
at the time.

NARRATION: A network of
election committees was created.

They worked in
close parallel

to the organization of the
Catholic Church.

PADRE LUCIO MIGLIACCIO:
[speaking Italian ] I can say that all

the parties envied
our electoral structure

and especially the
creation of election posters.

In the rural areas
there were no cinemas,

it was unthinkable
at that time.

So we had this idea.

We sent some lorries out
into towns and villages

and we projected
the films at night,

electioneering films.

When we showed
those films,

everybody used to
rush to the squares

where the films
were projected.

They were always
very crowded.

[speaking Italian ]

They unleashed this tremendous

campaign against the Left,
against the communists,

against the socialists,

and they told the most
terrible lies about them,

things out of this world.

The Church had a great
influence over the people

because 90% of them
were Catholics

and members
of the Church.

[speaking Italian ]
At that particular time,

I was a practicing Catholic,

I was extremely rigorous
about attending mass.

I never missed it.

One Sunday I
went to mass and

the priest was preaching
from the pulpit

and be said one sentence
which struck me

very deeply at the time.

I still remember it.

He said that the war against
the communists was a holy war.

NARRATION:
Pope Pius XII

and the Catholic Church had

supported the fascists
throughout

their decades of rule.

But the Vatican
totally opposed communism.

Just days before the election,
Pius XII excommunicated

many members of the
Italian Communist Party.

LINA MAINARDI:
[speaking Italian ]

When I heard about it,
I was terribly upset.

To begin with,
there was the fact that

at the time I was
engaged to my fiance.

We were getting married
the next year

and this meant we couldn't
get married in church.

[speaking Italian ]

Pope Pius XII
excommunicated us -

communists,
and the friends of communists.

[speaking Italian ]
Not being able to marry in

Church meant I
couldn't wear a white dress

and have all the flowers,
have the music playing.

My uncle, who had been like a
father to me when I was a child,

couldn't even take
me to the altar.

Not to mention that
as a Catholic,

I very much believed that my
marriage had to be blessed

by the priest who represented
Christ on earth,

and this was what
I believed in.

[speaking Italian ]
You know that Pius XII

in one of his speeches said
you are either for Christ

or against Christ.

And the Communist Party
was against Christ.

They were
clearly atheists.

So, it was the
duty of the Pope

and of the Church to
protect their people.

So there was ho other protection
oh the part of the Church

but to organize all the
Christian movements

to oppose the
Communist Party.

NARRATIONI
On April 18th 1948,

Italy went to the polls.

The Christian Democrats
won a landslide victory.

Italy would remain a member
of the western alliance.

The communist share of
the vote was almost halved.

[speaking Italian ]
I cried so much.

We'd worked so hard
to win this battle.

It had been
such an effort.

I remember crying and
crying and crying.

[speaking Italian ]

The victory was even greater
than we had expected.

It was the only
time when we,

on our own as
Christian Democrats,

had an absolute majority
in Parliament.

NARRATION:
The CIA, too, drew its conclusions from the

election victory.

F. MARK WYATT:
Well it was very gratifying.

We didn't know at that time

that we had carried out the
first political action,

covert political
action program

in the history of American
intelligence,

that would be followed
by many, many, many more.

NARRATION: Now that Italy had
elected to stay in the western bloc,

the United States released a
flood of Marshall Aid.

In Turin,
the FIAT motor company,

received giant
new assembly-line machines

from Detroit
and Pittsburgh.

FIAT was
re-equipped with

some of the most sophisticated
machinery in Europe.

F|AT's recovery would fuel the
revival of Italian industry.

GIOVANNI AGNELLI: In
Europe and in Italy especially,

we thought of America
as all powerful.

They had 50% of
the world GNP.

They had all the modern
technology.

They'd beaten the Nazi system.

And I don't say that you'd
expected it but you were

pleasantly surprised to
see the generosity

of their foreign policy.

And the generosity of their
foreign policy at that moment

was expressed through
the Marshall Plan.

NARRATION:
The Marshall Plan also demonstrated the

United States' desire to
secure Europe's future.

The message was:
"modernize your economies,

and you
too can be like us".

THEODORE GEIGER:
The Americans were trying to

impose American ideas,

American organization
into Europe.

There was a feeling that
if the European

economies were
to be rebuilt,

if Europe was to be competitive
in the world economy again,

it would have to imitate
American production methods,

American management
methods and so on.

And many European businessmen
were eager to do this.

In those years,

I mean the immediate
post-war years,

the whole of Europe
was in a recession,

so first of all it helped
us step out of a recession,

it gave a certain amount of
speed to the economy.

But that was
the first step.

The second real step that
was it approached

this European community
on the whole,

it brought us
towards NATO

and it brought the
European countries

closer to each other and
to the United States.

NARRATION:
The Marshall Plan set out

to build a European
consumer society.

The United States wanted a
free enterprise western bloc,

peaceful, united and tied to
American trade and capital.

The Soviet Union was forced
to build its own rival bloc.

The people of the socialist
countries would eye the

West for forty years-

and wonder.