THE MARSHALL PLAN IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Marshall Plan was the most pivotal event in shaping the opening chapters of the Cold War. Mr. Leffler will discuss its origins and will explain why it provoked Stalin and triggered his bitter reaction. Although it contributed greatly to the division of Europe and the globalization of the Cold War, the Marshall Plan should be regarded as one of the successful initiatives in the entire history of American foreign relations.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Melvyn P. Leffler is Emeritus Professor of American History at The University of Virginia.  He is the author and editor of books on the Cold War and on U.S. relations with Europe, including For the Soul of Mankind (2007), which won the George Louis Beer Prize from the American Historical Association, and A Preponderance of Power (1993), which won the Bancroft, Hoover and Ferrell Prizes. Along with Odd Arne Westad, he is the co-editor of the three-volume Cambridge History of the Cold War (2010). He has served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at The University of Virginia.  His most recent book is Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq (2023).

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