... Europe that had been devastated not only by war but also by the poor harvest and winter of 1946. The US President, Harry Truman, delivered a speech on 12 March 1947 whereby he outlined the terms of US aid known as the Truman Doctrine, and later referred to as the Marshall Plan, after the US Secretary of State George C Marshall. The Marshall Plan took effect from 3 April 1948 (The Marshall Plan, 2002, Spartacus [online]) and granted $20,000 million in total, 20% in loans and 80% in grants, to Europe. It was for "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure" (see Neill Nugent, 1999, pg 14) and was offered to all Europe, even the Soviet Union. The US could envisage the potential for a federation of European states especially as its own structure was federalist. (Cini, 2003). Britain's home secretary, Ernest Bevin, ...

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