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Page count: 292

The Marshall Plan pursued domestic economic goals as well as foreign ones throughout both its preliminary planning and operational periods. Planning for domestic objectives included preliminary governmental and public sector reports. Later congress responded to the planners' projections of effects on the domestic economy and adjusted the Economic Cooperation Act to meet special problems. After the Marshall Plan commenced, its domestic goals appeared in its own data, and congressional re-evaluation occurred whenever additional legislation seemed necessary. Amendments to improve the Marshall Plan's impact on the domestic economy, therefore, frequently appeared. The program's actual effects upon the United States throughout its operation can be documented by references to the state of the economy at various times. These references included statements by presidential, press, governmental, and private enterprise sources as well as congressional and ECA comments. In order to further explore the Plan's effect on the domestic economy, selected areas of the United States can be used as brief case studies. The three areas selected are Colorado, New England, and the states included in the Eight Federal Reserve District. These areas were effected differently since their economies produced different items necessary for the European countries covered by the Plan. The study proves that domestic needs were anything but ignored in the Marshall Plan; rather, the benefits or dangers to the United States of an economic aid program were, in this instance, carefully evaluated and re-assessed by the groups in charge of its operation. In addition, there seems to be proof that the program did not greatly affect Americans. The Marshall Plan was quite within United States capacity to undertake and complete successfully. However, its unsuccessful pursuits in the fields of stockpiling and strategic materials for the United States and involving small business in the program indicate that the Plan's domestic operation did not avoid failures. In summary, the Marshall Plan considered a broad range of domestic goals and generally met them.