Even while World War II war still being fought, leaders of the Allied powers began thinking about how to reconstruct Europe after the war. Winston Churchill of Britain, Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union agreed first of all, that they would need to root out fascism entirely. This meant they would not only need to defeat Germany but also need to denazify Germany by punishing those who were responsible. Coming out of the Second World War which completely ruined and crippled Europe, many countries had to face the problems of material, economic and moral reconstruction. This report shows how the countries went about rebuilding a ruined Europe.

On June 6th 1947 George c Marshall presented a speech of a plan the forever-changed Europe. It was a plan to rebuild the destructed Europe after World War II.

?Borne from the mind of a wise and diplomatically skilled visionary, the Marshall Plan was the phoenix on whose wings war ravaged Europe would begin its ascent from the ashes of World War II. The Plan took root in the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) created by Congress in April 1948. Its official tit

The Soviet Union had emerged from the war as the greatest military power in Europe; and it pushed forward in turning itself into one of the two global superpowers. All outward appearances showed the Soviet Union as unimaginably strong and having an impregnable fortress armed with the world?s largest collection of nuclear weapons. Internally, this was not all the situation. The Soviets internal processes were decomposing at an incredible rate. After the war, the same group of Stalin?s pre-war supporters clung to power. They used the same mixture of terror propaganda and collective routine to keep its people down. During the years following the war, the Soviet Empire expanded to its greatest extent, but it was through military conquest. (Davies, 1089)

The Soviet Union (which had been invaded by Germany twice in 30 years) feared that it would be invaded by the NATO powers. So it formed its own defense alliance with other Eastern European countries, known as the Warsaw Pact. (Davies 1100)

The European Union is currently a major issue in Western Europe. To some, it represents the first successful European unification that is not a result of one country conquering all the others. The European Union formed in 1957 as a coalition France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. With the addition of Denmark, U.K., Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Finland and Sweden there are now 15 countries ion the EU.

This efficiency resulted from coordinated economic planning by economic experts. These experts tended to promote consensus on issues. Their expert opinion was widely respected as having best interest of the country.(?Europe Since 1945?)

The Marshall Plan was a bipartisan effort proposed by a Democratic president and enacted into law by a Republican Congress in a hotly contested presidential election year. Marshall proposed that the European States themselves should set up a program for the reconstruction of Europe. The United States would contribute towards this program. The Organization for European Economic Cooperation was the European body that would coordinate on the European side employment of the Marshall Plan resources. The United States pressed for and supported the Organization for European Economic Cooperation as a way of fostering new habits of cooperation among the West Europeans so that they would use the Marshall Plan?s funds efficiently and be a stronger center of resistance against the Soviets. The OEEC?s major aim was to encourage production in general, to increase trade between countries through removal of the restrictions on trade and international payments, and to create and maintain full employment while insuring internal financial stability. (The Marshall Plan. 1947)

Some common words found in the essay are:
Marshall Plan, Western Europe, Soviet Union, Eastern European, Common Market, Europes Welfare, War II, Soviet Unions, Eastern Europe, European Union, marshall plan, world war, world war ii, war ii, soviet union, western europe, european union, eastern europe, common market, european countries, eastern european, eastern european countries, eastern europe 1945, belgium netherlands luxembourg, european coal steel,
Approximate Word count = 3916
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)