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The first many years after WW2 Europe spent rebuilding itself. America came out of the war with barely a scratch on its home territory. Although many American s
by flexie 13y ago
The first many years after WW2 Europe spent rebuilding itself. America came out of the war with barely a scratch on its home territory. Although many American soldiers had died overseas no cities or industries were destroyed and almost no civilians died. In Europe, two generations had been decimated by the two consecutive wars, hundreds of major cities were destroyed, infrastructure was destroyed, businesses - well, entire industries, were destroyed. The iron curtain meant that trading partners in Eastern Europe were no longer accessible.
For America WW2 meant opening up it's trade with the war.
Let's not forget that Europe's welfare states were born in hardship.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- wikiburner 13y ago> The first many years after WW2 Europe spent rebuilding itself. The U.S chipped in quite a bit too. $15 billion, or $148 billion in today's dollars, which was almost 6% (!) of the U.S. GDP at the time. This was in addition to a previous $15 billion in aid before the Marshall Plan was enacted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
- baby 13y agoand all that to impose its views, to counter communism.
- flexie 13y agoWhile indeed massive, the Marshall plan was handed out over 4 years so it was around 1.5 percent of US GDP. I dont think it made it impossible for the US to build public health care.
- smacktoward 13y agoIndeed -- in fact at the same time as the Marshall Plan, President Truman actually was trying to pass a national health plan: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htm http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htm http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/3/399.full http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/3/399.full