David Rees argument for the motives behind the Marshall plan are traditionalist, and were written during the 1960s when the common perception of the Cold War that the USA were defending freedom and capitalism. This outlook can easily be explained as the sources he uses are largely official documents from the US government “Foreign relations of the United States”, and memoirs and bibliography’s from US congressmen.

Yergin analysis and explanation

A third works that investigates the motives behind the Marshall Plan comes from Daniel Yergin in The Shattered Peace. His interpretation of the motives is that the political scene in Europe and the divisions between the US and communism were responsible for the plans introduction. Yergin also touches upon the economic factors that play into the political conflict and the impact it has on the Communists influence in Europe. However, these were of a humanitarian nature and were not to do with self-interest for the Americans as the Kolko’s believed they were. He describes Europe as being in “an economic crisis with momentous political ramifications” and that the Marshall plans two aims were “to halt a feared communist advance… and to stabilize an international economic environment favorable to capitalism”. Yergin claims that the two factors fuse together to form the Marshall plan.

Yergin suggests that the Truman doctrine was failing, as US policy was focused on acting against the soviet sphere. He interprets this as being a long term motive behind the plan and that it was introduced to create a shift in US policymaking towards creating a Western Sphere to block any further spread of the communist regime. He argues that the Marshall plan was “the last great effort, using the powerful and attractive magnetism of the American economy, to draw these countries out of the Soviet orbit”. Yergin uses Truman’s point that “There are other places where we can be effective”, highlighting how a consolidated Western Sphere is more significant than a weakened Soviet sphere. To extend this Yergin breaks down the consolidation of Europe and says that the reco