Transcript for the Piece Audio version of This Week In April In History

During this week in 1945 an American President died from natural causes. In the second week of April 1945, Franklyn D. Roosevelt had been in office for only three months after beginning his fourth term as President (the two-term limitation having not been ratified by Congress until 1951) for the Presidency of the United States. On April 12 in 1945 and quite unexpectedly, Roosevelt died -- and that same day in April, Vice-President Harry S. Truman was sworn in to become the 33rd President of the nation. The United States at the time had become one of only two nations to be considered the world's super-power nations following the devastation done to powers and resources once held by France, Germany, Great Britain and Japan during World War Two.

Just before taking the oath for the office of President, Harry S. Truman whispered, ''I'm not big enough for this job.'' So, he immediately began putting in long hours -- rising early and working late. One of Truman's first acts was to endorse the European Recovery Program, E-R-P, created by US State Department officials -- which was a primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and recreating the war-destroyed countries of Western Europe and for repelling Communism after World War Two. President Truman named the initiative after US Secretary of State George Marshall. E-R-P, the European Recovery Program, became known as The Marshall Plan which was staunchly opposed by Russian dictator Joseph Stalin who wanted Germany brought to its knees and kept there forever. If this could be done Germany would never again be a threat to Soviet security or Soviet ambitions. Perhaps Stalin was especially concerned with the impact that the Marshall plan could have in economically reviving what Stalin considered to be an especially dangerous enemy. If Stalin could have had his way, he would have kept even God from using the German's for any of purposes of the Almighty as God has announced He plans to do even yet for the future as He speaks prophetically in Isaiah 10 of the Assyrians.

Even though the major allies of World War Two, including Russia, split Berlin into four quarters, one each of which was to be occupied respectively by France, Great Britain, the United States and Russia, Stalin attempted to use the advantage he had secured of occupying the majority of northeastern Germany to seal off supplies into Berlin from the major Western Allies to force them out. Stalin was able to keep the major Western Allies from shipping in food to the troops by land. But he miscalculated the tenacity -- or call it the stubbornness if you will -- of the Missouri-born Harry Truman. President Truman, under the Marshall Plan, immediately commenced flying cargo into the isolated city of Berlin in an operation that was known as the ''Berlin Airlift'' -- an air-force operation that continued on a twenty-four hour schedule for eleven months without interruption in bringing food and other supplies into Berlin by air for the major Western Allied troops there and for the German people in the western parts of Germany. The reconstruction plan, rejected by the USSR, began a four-year operation this month, in April 1948. During that period, from 1948 to 1952, some 13 billion US dollars were provided in economic and technical assistance to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic co-operation.

The Marshall Plan pushed the economy of every participant country, except the divided Germany, well beyond pre-war levels. The overall result for many regions of Western Europe was an incredibly healthy population growth with an unprecedented prosperity.

What some view as another positive aspect of the Marshall Plan is that it initiated a European integration that has grown into what is known today as the European Union and the Council of Europe of 1949 seated in Strasbourg, France, which on more than one occasion has been known as Strasbourg, Germany. Truman's endorsement of the Marshall Plan paved the way for multiple avenues of European integration in that the elements of the Marshall Plan were a first cause in erasing tariff trade barriers and the Plan helped to set up institutions to coordinate the economy of the many countries of Europe on a continental level.

Truman also encouraged the forming of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, by the United States and the major non-Communist countries of Europe, as a joint protection against Soviet encroachment. NATO still exists today, outstaying the Soviet's own response, the Warsaw Pact alliance which dissolved in 1991. In short, the original purpose of NATO was to defend Western Europe against possible attack by Communist nations, led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR, although the wording allows for member states to provide a mutual defense against an attack by any external party (hmmm, that wording could perhaps make NATO an enemy of the United States).

The Marshall Plan and NATO have helped Europe to grow, prosper and unite. Will a United Europe continue to be an ally of the United States. Or, are events underway that will lead to the corroding of any US - European alliance? Does the creation of the Euro work to the benefit or to the degradation of the US Dollar? Does the Euro promote the continuance of the US Dollar as the global currency standard of value -- or operate as a competing force for that position of monetary worldwide dominance?

Truman's Marshall Plan and Truman's encouragement of the creation of NATO are part of the legacy of Harry Truman that sprang from his coming into the office of the President of the United States in this week in 1945. This is Stephen Lloyd with a look at this week in history.