《欧洲复兴计划》的通称。第二次世界大战后美国争夺全球战略的重点—欧洲的扩张计划。1947年6月5日，国务卿G．C．马歇尔在哈佛大学发表演说，首先提出援助欧洲经济复兴的方案，故名。他说。当时欧洲经济濒于崩溃，粮食和燃料等物质极度匮乏，而其需要的进口量远远超过它的支付能力。如果没有大量额外援助，就会面临性质非常严重的经济、社会和政治的危机。他呼吁欧洲国家采取主动，共同制订一项经济复兴计划，美国则用其生产过剩的物资援助欧洲国家。1947年7-9月，英、法、意、奥、比、荷、卢、瑞士、丹、挪、瑞典、葡、希、土、爱尔兰、冰岛16国的代表在巴黎开会，决定接受马歇尔计划(1948年4月，德国西部占领区和的里雅斯特自由区也宣布接受)，建立了欧洲经济合作委员会，提出了要求美国在4年内提供援助和贷款224亿美元的总报告。1948年4月3日美国国会通过《对外援助法案》，马歇尔计划正式执行。计划原定期限5年(1948-1952)，1951年底，美国宣布提前结束，代之以《共同安全计划》。美国对欧洲拨款共达131．5亿美元，其中赠款占88％，余为贷款。马歇尔计划实施期间，西欧国家的国民生产总值增长25％。马歇尔计划是战后美国对外经济技术援助最成功的计划，它为北大西洋公约组织和欧洲经济共同体的建立奠定了基础，对西欧的联合和经济的恢复起了促进作用，同时，也缓和了美国国内即将发生的经济危机。
 

Mr. President, Dr. Conant, members of the Board of Overseers, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am profoundly grateful, touched by the great distinction and honor and great compliment accorded me by the authorities of Harvard this morning. I am overwhelmed, as a matter of fact, and I am rather fearful of my inability to maintain such a high rating as you've been generous enough to accord to me. In these historic and lovely surroundings, this perfect day, and this very wonderful assembly, it is a tremendously impressive thing to an individual in my position.

But to speak more seriously, I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious. That must be apparent to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. Furthermore, the people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth, and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reactions of the long-suffering peoples of Europe and the effect of those reactions on their governments in connection with our efforts to promote peace in the world.

In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe, the physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines, and railroads was correctly estimated, but it has become obvious during recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy. For the past ten years conditions have been highly abnormal. The feverish preparation for war and the more feverish maintenance of the war effort engulfed all aspects of national economies. Machinery has fallen into disrepair or is entirely obsolete. Under the arbitrary and destructive Nazi rule, virtually every possible enterprise was geared into the German war machine. Long-standing commercial ties, private institutions, banks, insurance companies, and shipping companies disappeared through loss of capital, absorption through nationalization, or by simple destruction. In many countries, confidence in the local currency has been severely shaken. The breakdown of the business structure of Europe during the war was complete. Recovery has been seriously retarded by the fact that two years after the close of hostilities a peace settlement with Germany and Austria has not been agreed upon. But even given a more prompt solution of these difficult problems, the rehabilitation of the economic structure of Europe quite evidently will require a much longer time and greater effort than had been foreseen.

There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious. The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life. This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization. At the present time it is threatened with breakdown. The town and city industries are not producing adequate goods to exchange with the food-producing farmer. Raw materials and fuel are in short supply. Machinery, as I have said, is lacking or worn out. The farmer or the peasant cannot find the goods for sale which he desires to purchase. So the sale of his farm produce for money which he cannot use seems to him an unprofitable transaction. He, therefore, has withdrawn many fields from crop cultivation and he's using them for grazing. He feeds more grain to stock and finds for himself and his family an ample supply of food, however short he may be on clothing and the other ordinary gadgets of civilization.

Meanwhile, people in the cities are short of food and fuel, and in some places approaching the starvation levels. So, the governments are forced to use their foreign money and credits to procure these necessities abroad. This process exhausts funds which are urgently needed for reconstruction. Thus, a very serious situation is rapidly developing which bodes no good for the world. The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down. The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products -- principally from America -- are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character.

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