The Wasting of Britain's Marshall Aid

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• 1. Hard luck story
• 2. 'Financial Dunkirk'
• 3. Dream of world power
• 4. Marshall Aid
• 5. Overriding needs
• 6. Waste
• 7. Find out more
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Hard luck story

We all know the easy British explanation for our cumulative export defeat in world markets from the 1950s onwards, especially at the hands of the Germans. This story tells us that lucky West Germany had all her industries and infrastructure bombed flat or removed as reparations, and then was able to re-equip herself from scratch with Marshall Aid dollars. Meanwhile, so this hard-luck story goes on, poor old Britain had to struggle on with worn-out and old-fashioned kit.

'Britain actually received more than a third more Marshall Aid than West Germany ...'

This is utter myth. Britain actually received more than a third more Marshall Aid than West Germany - $2.7 billion as against $1.7 billion. She in fact pocketed the largest share of any European nation. The truth is that the post-war Labour Government, advised by its resident economic pundits, freely chose not to make industrial modernisation the central theme in her use of Marshall Aid.

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Published: 2005-06-17