Reply #20: My reply

[whathehell]

"...came about because ours was the only national industrial capacity of the major combatants to emerge from the war unscathed".

Unscathed?...How about the DEAD?....Even now, there are French who tend daily to that vast field of white gravestones lying in Normandy...When the news of 9/11 reached Paris, Parisians began laying hundreds of notes and flowers on the steps of the US embassy, many of them thanking America for our part in saving their country.

"..That, along with our possessing and willingness to use atomic weapons, cemented our role as Western-capitalist leader in the developing Cold War".

Again, You forget the human part...We also possessed a willingness to risk -- and lose --tens of thousands of American LIVES in another European war. It was the SECOND time in a twenty five year time span.

The Marshall Plan, while having noble intent in and of itself, was primarily a propaganda ploy to sway Western Europe away from Soviet influence".

It had "noble intent in and of itself"...but was "primarily" a propaganda ploy?.

To the extent that that is true (and I don't know that it is) I don't think it's "propaganda" benefit detracted from it's value to them or our generosity in giving it..After the money and lives we spent on the war, You could hardly criticize our country had they been hesitant to offer more resources of no benefit to us.

Whatever the story, I can assure you that Western Europeans are now quite happy to have not been "swayed" by that Soviet Influence.....To this day, Eastern Europeans are looked down upon and viewed suspiciously by Western Euros for their "Communist past".