Archive Report
Archive Report
The Ruhr and the Marshall Plan
American Interest in Ruhr Rehabilitation
The ruhr concentration of industrial power, one of the greatest in the world before the war, is as indispensable to world peace as it was to German aggression. Therefore in this area, no larger than the state of Rhode Island,1 the problem of the treatment of Germany and the problem of the prosperity of Europe are inextricably joined. When Secretary of State Marshall made restoration of “the fabric of European economy” a major United States aim by his address at Harvard June 5, 1947, he initiated a policy that would provide a new framework for the peace settlement with Germany. Within a few weeks the Under Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, was to say (June ...