Marshall Plan Document 16

In a democracy, the executive branch can propose plans, but funding for those plans require the elected assembly (e.g., the U.S. Congress) to pass a law that provides the funds for the plan.

This cartoon by Edwin Marcus (1885-1961), which appeared in the New York Times on March 14, 1948, comments on the debate in the U.S. Congress over Marshall Plan legislation. Opponents argued that the costs of such a massive program would severely damage the U.S. domestic economy. Those in favor, whose view Marcus presents, maintained that the delay in providing aid to the war-impoverished countries of Europe put them in danger of Soviet domination, represented in the drawing by the Russian bear.

Ultimately events abroad proved more persuasive than even the strongest Marshall Plan supporters. On February 25, 1948, several weeks before the cartoon was published, a Soviet-backed, communist coup took place in Czechoslovakia. American shock at the coup reduced opposition to the Marshall Plan, and Congress finally approved the bill in April 1948, ten months after it was originally proposed.