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Bipartisan Strategy Selling the Marshall Plan
John Bledsoe Bonds
ISBN: 0-275-97804-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97804-4
256 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 12/30/2002
List Price: $98.95 (UK Sterling Price: £68.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Bonds closely examines the process of bipartisanship in the creation and passage of the Marshall Plan in 1947-48, as the Truman administration confronted the first Republican Congress since 1929. The significant effect of process on policy and the evolving Cold War is illustrated, offering new insights into that confrontation.

Employing extensive archival research, Bonds examines the reciprocal relationship of effect between domestic and international politics, which cannot be understood adequately without examining the process of making policy. As Bonds demonstrates, this is a messy contest requiring that policy be adapted or compromised to fit the existing political alignment. It is illustrated most clearly in a situation of differentiated control of the White House and Congress, when a bipartisan consensus must be developed, as in 1947-48.

Bonds also examines the development of the Cold War, and the process of passing the Marshall Plan is shown to have been a significant factor in the recognition of confrontation on both sides. The notion that the Marshall Plan was a plan to achieve world economic dominion, or to find a market for surplus U.S. goods is debunked, and Bonds disputes the charge that Truman and Marshall deliberately produced a war scare to increase defense budgets. He also contests the argument that the United States depended on the atomic bomb to deter the Soviets in the early Cold War period and demonstrates that Truman and Marshall had no concept at all of a National Security State in 1947 and early 1948. Instead, they sought a national militia system and firmly suppressed military appropriations in favor of a balanced budget. This is a provocative work for scholars and students of American politics, international relations, and diplomatic history.
Table of Contents:
  • Setting
    Immediate Origins: Aid to Greece and Turkey
    Immediate Origins II
    Domestic Activity
    Europe Responds
    Congressional Interlude
    Events Intrude
    Other Logics
    Citizens' Committee for the Marshall Plan
    Interim Aid
    Last Chance at Accommodation: The London Conference
    Preparing for the Main Event
    The Main Event
    Universal Military Training
    A Falling Barometer
    A New Paradigm
    The Final Innings
    Reflections on the Process of Approval
    Selected Bibliography
About the Author: JOHN BLEDSOE BONDS is Adjunct Professor of History at The Citadel. Professor Bonds served 26 years on active naval duty, with two ship commands, his last Navy tour was as Deputy Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, Naval War College. He has published numerous articles in Naval Institute Proceedings.
LCC Class: 338
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