| Title |
Message from US President Harry S. Truman to Congress (19 December 1947)
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| Document type |
Text
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| Source |
Department of State (Ed.). A Decade of American Foreign Policy, Basic Documents 1941-1949. Washington: Department of State Printing Office, 1985, pp. 820-831.
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| Keywords |
economic reconstruction, Marshall Plan, Second World War
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| Copyright |
United States of America Department of State
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| Caption |
On 19 December 1947, US President Harry S. Truman delivers an address to Congress on the issues involved in the economic reconstruction of Europe; he also outlines the aid provided by the United States for the purpose of getting the European economy back on its feet.
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| Location in the digital library |
HISTORICAL EVENTS >> 1945–1949 The pioneering phase >> The Marshall Plan and the establishment of the OEEC
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| Document extract |
Message from the President to the Congress (19 December 1947)
A principal concern of the people of the United States is the creation of conditions of enduring peace throughout the world. In company with other peace-loving nations, the United States is striving to insure that there will never be a World War III. In the words of the Charter of the United Nations, we are "determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." We seek lasting peace in the world where freedom and justice are secure and where there is equal opportunity for the economic well-being of all peoples. To this end, the United States played a leading role in the founding of the United Nations. We have supported that organization at all times to the best of our ability and we have advanced a number of proposals for increasing its effectiveness in maintaining peace and security and in establishing the economic, social and moral foundations of peace. We are working in the United Nations toward the limitation and control of armaments and, in a step without precedent or parallel, have offered to place our most powerful weapon under international control provided that other nations agree to effective and enforceable safeguards against its use for destructive purposes. The United States, in the conviction that a prerequisite to peace in the future is the j (...) Read more in ENA |
| See also |
Cartoon by Illingworth on the approval of the Marshall Plan by the US Congress (7 January 1948)
Cartoon by Shepard on Paul Hoffman’s role in the European post_war reconstruction effort (4 August 1948)
The Marshall Plan and the establishment of the OEEC
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