Marshall Plan

5 June 1947, 2:50 p.m., Harvard Yard

U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall spoke in Harvard Yard at 2:50 p.m. on 5 June 1947, after receiving an honorary degree. The address belonged to the afternoon Harvard Alumni Association exercises, not the formal morning commencement ceremony.

An estimated 15,000 people were in the Yard.

Charles E. "Chip" Bohlen had drafted the speech, using memoranda from George Kennan and William Clayton.

The argument

Marshall said the deeper problem in Europe was the dislocation of its economic system — trade, currency, production, and the exchange between farms and cities — not merely the visible wartime destruction. He argued that ruined factories mattered less than a farmer refusing to sell food for money he could not use.

He committed the United States to consider substantial assistance for European recovery, while insisting that European countries themselves must initiate and jointly develop the programme. Europe, he said, would need extraordinary imports for the next three to four years.

No budget, no country list

The speech named no dollar amount, no recipient list, no administrative agency and no country allocations. It was a framework; the detailed European Recovery Program was negotiated and legislated afterwards.

British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin heard a BBC report of the address and contacted French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault the next day to arrange a 17 June conference on Marshall's proposal.