The Marshall Plan

“The only thing new on this earth is the history you don’t know.” – Harry Truman

The Marshall Plan is famous as an act of extraordinary generosity from America which restored prosperity to a war ravaged Europe.

It was signed into law by President Truman on the 3rd of April 1948.

The plan was conceived and put in place after the damage was done and the situation had been fully assessed.

It worked.

Now we see people in a health crisis calling it a war and spending enormous sums of money to prevent as yet unknown damage and simultaneously ceasing the economic activities which could generate the income to pay for what is being spent.

Does that order of doing things and that way of speaking of things make any sense?

What makes more sense to me as words for reflection by all of us now are these words of George C Marshall himself:

“The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.”

“A political problem thought of in military terms eventually becomes a military problem.”

The more I reflect on The Greatest Generation, the more I believe this modern world still has a lot to learn.

Lest We Forget

Geoff Fox, 3rd April, 2020, Down Under