Import Requirements for National Reconstruction and Modernization

Abstract

The origins of European multilateral economic cooperation have traditionally been placed in the speech by the US Secretary of State, General George C. Marshall, on 5 June 1947, which proposed a coordinated program for European economic as well as social and political reconstruction. That Spain was excluded from the Marshall Plan, given the origins and nature of Franco’s regime, does not represent anything new.1 It might be that Franco, personally, was ultimately responsible for Spain’s exclusion because he stayed in power and maintained unaltered the undemocratic institutional character of his regime. The relation of Spain to the Marshall Plan cannot, however, be viewed solely within such narrow terms. Although Spain did not participate, its authorities had great expectations of Marshall aid and responded to exclusion. This second set of chapters attempts to take Spain out of the footnotes and contributes to a better understanding of the origins of West European cooperation by presenting the position, goals and response of the only country in Western Europe not invited to join.2