The “Marshall Plan” speech at Harvard University

5 June 1947

马歇尔1947年6月5日的在哈佛大学的的演讲

George Catlett Marshall was born in Pennsylvania on 31 December 1880. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute to launch a career as both a soldier and a statesman. After duty in the Philippines and the United States, he served in France during World War I and later in China and in other posts in the United States. Appointed Army Chief of Staff from 1939 to 1945, he became Secretary of State in 1947 until 1949 and was nominated Secretary of Defence in 1950.

乔治 马歇尔于1880年12月31日出生于宾夕法尼亚州。他从佛吉尼亚军事学院毕业后，开始了他的作为士兵和政府家的生涯。服完在菲律宾和美国的兵役后，他在二战期间在法国参加战斗并之后在中国和美国的一些职位任职。1939年到1945年他被任命为陆空军司令，1947年到1949年他成为国务卿，并在1950年被提名为防务部长。

Below is text from the speech he gave at Harvard University on 5 June 1947. This speech initiated the post-war European Aid Program commonly known as the Marshall Plan.

以下是他在1947年6月5日在哈佛演讲的文本。这个演讲促动了战后欧洲援助计划，即被广泛称之为的马歇尔计划。

"I'm profoundly grateful and touched by the great distinction and honor and great compliment accorded me by the authorities of Harvard this morning. I'm overwhelmed, as a matter of fact, and I'm rather fearful of my inability to maintain such a high rating as you've been generous enough to accord to me. In these historic and lovely surroundings, this perfect day, and this very wonderful assembly, it is a tremendously impressive thing to an individual in my position. But to speak more seriously, I need not tell you, gentlemen, that the world situation is very serious. That must be apparent to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. Furthermore, the people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reactions of the long-suffering peoples, and the effect of those reactions on their governments in connection with our efforts to promote peace in the world.

今天早上我被哈佛校方给予我的强大的声望、荣誉和巨大的赞扬深深感动并深表感谢。我受宠若惊，因为事实上，我真是非常担心，惟恐我的无能无法承担你们给予我的如此真诚的期望。在这些历史性的美好场合，这个美好的日子，并且这个非常精彩的时刻，这是对我这么一个位置的人来说非常印象深刻的事情。但是更认真来讲，我并不需要告诉你们，世界形势非常严重。那对所有明智的人来说都是非常明显的。我认为一个困难就是这个问题是如此复杂以至于传媒呈现在大众面前的情况使得那些大街上的人们很难对现今的形势作出一个清楚的评价。并且，这个国家的人民远离这些问题地区，并且他们也很难理解那些长期遭受苦难人们的窘境和和相应的后果，也很难理解他们政府因为这些后果与我们的努力在促进世界和平上的作用。

In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe, the physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines and railroads was correctly estimated but it has become obvious during recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy. For the past 10 years conditions have been highly abnormal. The feverish preparation for war and the more feverish maintenance of the war effort engulfed all aspects of national economies. Machinery has fallen into disrepair or is entirely obsolete. Under the arbitrary and destructive Nazi rule, virtually every possible enterprise was geared into the German war machine. Long-standing commercial ties, private institutions, banks, insurance companies, and shipping companies disappeared, through loss of capital, absorption through nationalization, or by simple destruction. In many countries, confidence in the local currency has been severely shaken. The breakdown of the business structure of Europe during the war was complete. Recovery has been seriously retarded by the fact that two years after the close of hostilities a peace settlement with Germany and Austria has not been agreed upon. But even given a more prompt solution of these difficult problems the rehabilitation of the economic structure of Europe quite evidently will require a much longer time and greater effort than had been foreseen.

考虑到欧洲战后重建的需要，生命逝去的损失和众所可见的城市、工厂、矿山和铁路的破坏最被估算了下，但是这几个月事情很明显，即这些肉眼可见的破坏可能远远小于欧洲经济整个系统的裂痕。过去的10年情况是极端异常的。狂热的备战和更狂热的战争力量的维持使得国家经济所有方面断裂。机器失修或者完全过时。在军事独裁和毁灭性的纳粹统治下，实际上每一个可能的企业都卷进了德国的战争机器。因为资金的缺乏、民族主义的榨取或者单纯的破坏，长期的商业联系、私人机构、银行、保险公司和船务公司消失了。 在很多国家，对本国货币的信心已经严重动摇。战争中欧洲商业结构已经完全坍塌。重建被严重滞后，因为这么个事实，即在战争敌意结束后的两年后，和德国与澳大利亚的和平协议没有被遵守。但是即使对这些困难问题给予更多的即使的措施，战后欧洲经济的重建很明显地需要一个更长的时间并且需要比已经预见到的更大的努力。

There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious. The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life. This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization. At the present time it is threatened with breakdown. The town and city industries are not producing adequate goods to exchange with the food producing farmer. Raw materials and fuel are in short supply. Machinery is lacking or worn out. The farmer or the peasant cannot find the goods for sale which he desires to purchase. So the sale of his farm produce for money which he cannot use seems to him an unprofitable transaction. He, therefore, has withdrawn many fields from crop cultivation and is using them for grazing. He feeds more grain to stock and finds for himself and his family an ample supply of food, however short he may be on clothing and the other ordinary gadgets of civilization. Meanwhile people in the cities are short of food and fuel. So the governments are forced to use their foreign money and credits to procure these necessities abroad. This process exhausts funds which are urgently needed for reconstruction. Thus a very serious situation is rapidly developing which bodes no good for the world. The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down.

在这个问题中有一个步骤，既有趣也很重要。农民总是生产粮食来和城市居民交换以获得其他生活必须品。这种劳动分工是现代文明社会的基础。而今，它却是濒临崩溃。城市和城镇工业不能生产足够的产品来和生产粮食的农民交换。原材料和燃料供应不足。机器缺乏或者是已经废弃。农村的农民不能找到他们需要购买的物品。因此他出卖农产品获得的钱币不能使用，这对他来说就成了一个无利的交易。因此，他就会缩小种植粮食的面积而用来放牧。他种植更多的谷物来储存和为他和他的家庭提供一个充足的食物供给，而不管他在衣服和其他日常的城市生活物品上是多么缺少。同时，城市中的人们缺少粮食和燃料。因此，政府不得不用他们的外汇储备和存款从国外购买这些必需品。这个过程耗竭了急需用来重建的资金。于是一个非常严重的情况迅速发生，而这无益于世界。这种产品分工建立基础上的劳动分工的现代系统正在面临崩溃的危险。

The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products - principally from America - are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character.

事实的真相是这样的，欧洲今后三年到四年的对于国外食品和其他生活必需品的需要——主要是从美国——是如此巨大，以至于以她现今的能力是无法支付的而必须获得巨大的额外的帮助，否则她将面临经济、社会和政治的恶化这么种非常可怕的状况。

The remedy lies in breaking the vicious circle and restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole. The manufacturer and the farmer throughout wide areas must be able and willing to exchange their products for currencies the continuing value of which is not open to question.

解决方法在于打破这个恶性循环并且重建欧洲人民对于他们自己国家的经济前景的信心，并相信欧洲是个整体。广袤土地上的生产者和农民必须能并愿意交换他们的产品来获取货币。

Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis as various crises develop. Any assistance that this Government may render in the future should provide a cure rather than a mere palliative. Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full co-operation I am sure, on the part of the United States Government. Any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us. Furthermore, governments, political parties, or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit therefrom politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.

剔除世界范围来看的士气不振和因为所涉及人群的消极而可能的骚动不谈，美国经济的后果对大家来说应该很明显。很合逻辑地，美国应该做任何她能做的来帮助世界经济的恢复。若不如此，将不会有政治稳定和有保障的和平。我们的的政策不是针对任何国家或是教条，而是针对饥饿、贫穷、绝望和骚动。它的目标应该是世界范围内的经济复苏，以使得自由体制能存在的政治和社会条件得以出现。我坚信，这样的帮助必须不能建立在一个松散的基础上，就像很多危机产生那样。一个国家在未来可能给予的任何帮助必须提供一个治疗方法而不仅仅是减轻。任何将在这个复兴即或中提供帮助的政府，我可以保证，将从美国政府那里获得完全的合作。任何试图阻止其他复兴的政府将不可能从美国获得帮助。并且，政府、政党、或团体，只要他们试图延续人类的灾难来获得自己的政治或其他利益，将遭到美国的严重反对。

It is already evident that, before the United States Government can proceed much further in its efforts to alleviate the situation and help start the European world on its way to recovery, there must be some agreement among the countries of Europe as to the requirements of the situation and the part those countries themselves will take in order to give proper effect to whatever action might be undertaken by this Government. It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for this Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically. This is the business of the Europeans. The initiative, I think, must come from Europe. The role of this country should consist of friendly aid in the drafting of a European program and of later support of such a program so far as it may be practical for us to do so. The program should be a joint one, agreed to by a number, if not all European nations.

已经很明显，在美国政府能够进一步努力来改善这种情况和帮助欧洲世界开始它的复兴之路之前，欧洲国家之间必须达成一些合约，关于现状的需要及这些国家自身的参与，什么行动这个国家可能采取，并行动起来。任何国家单方制定计划以来让欧洲处于她的经济控制下都是不合适和无效的。这是欧洲的事情。这个主动权，我想，必须来自欧洲。这个国家的角色应该包括起草一个欧洲项目的友好的帮助和之后的这个项目的支持，只要这个项目对我们而言是可行的。这个项目必须是一个联合体，即使不是被所有欧洲国家赞同，必须被一些欧洲国家赞同。

An essential part of any successful action on the part of the United States is an understanding on the part of the people of America of the character of the problem and the remedies to be applied. Political passion and prejudice should have no part. With foresight, and a willingness on the part of our people to face up to the vast responsibility which history has clearly placed upon our country, the difficulties I have outlined can and will be overcome.

在美国方面，任何成功行动的重要一点就是得到美国人民对于问题的理解和解救措施的理解。政治热情和歧视不会是其中一部分。有着如此远见，以及我们国家人民面对历史已经很清楚赋予我们国家伟大责任的意愿，我所描述的困难都能也将被克服。

I am sorry that on each occasion I have said something publicly in regard to our international situation, I've been forced by the necessities of the case to enter into rather technical discussions. But to my mind, it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the complications really are, rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment. As I said more formally a moment ago, we are remote from the scene of these troubles. It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment. It hangs, I think, to a large extent on the realization of the American people, of just what are the various dominant factors. What are the reactions of the people? What are the justifications of those reactions? What are the sufferings? What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done? Thank you very much."

我很抱歉任何一个我公开述说国际情况的场合，我都不得不因个案需要深入技术层面的讨论。但是在我看来，，与其仅仅因为热情或者偏见或者一时的情感而产生互动，我们的人民获得一些实际复杂情况究竟如何的广泛了解是更有益的。正像我刚才正式所说的，我们原离那些问题的场景。仅仅远远地看、或听、或即使看照片是不够的，要抓住事情的所有真正的意义。当然整个未来的世界需要一个正确的判断。它取决于，我认为，很大程度上取决于美国人民的认识，关于什么是各种重要的因素？什么是人民的反应？什么是这些反应的原因？什么是苦难？什么是需要的？什么能最好来做？什么是必须做？非常谢谢！