Committee for the Marshall Plan Records

This collection contains meeting minutes and agendas, memoranda, reports, financial records, correspondence, newsletters, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings relating to the activities of the Committee for the Marshall Plan.

Size: 10 linear inches (about 1,600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection.
Processed by: Willie L. Harriford Jr. (1962).
Updated by: Emily Cain (2010) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The Committee for the Marshall Plan to Aid European Recovery was formed as a citizens’ committee with members from all walks of life. Members included industrialists, presidents of universities and colleges, scientists, authors, editors, a lumberman, a producer from MGM, a clergyman, bankers, lawyers, Ambassadors, and former Senators, among others.

The Committee’s members gave speeches and wrote pamphlets, newsletters, press releases, circular letters and newspaper advertisements to raise awareness and support for the Marshall Plan. They participated in a major fundraising campaign and headed a petition drive for one million signatures. Their mission was to educate the American public about the Marshall Plan and to support pro-Marshall Plan legislation in Congress.

The Committee maintained an office in New York City at the Empire State Building as well as a Washington, D.C. office. Some of the notable members of the Executive Committee included Dean Acheson, Robert B. Patterson, Alger Hiss, Allen W. Dulles and Clark M. Eichelberger. Patterson served as Chairman of the Executive Committee; Hugh Moore served as Treasurer. Nelson Rockefeller, Eleanor Roosevelt and Henry Luce were among the prominent people who also supported the organization.

The Committee was very active from late 1947 through 1948. By 1949, the Committee was mainly inactive with only a small balance in its bank account. This money was donated in 1951 to the Committee on the Present Danger, the Atlantic Union Committee and the American Association for the United Nations.

The Records of the Committee for the Marshall Plan include meeting minutes and agendas, memoranda, reports, financial records, correspondence, newsletters, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings.

The minutes and agendas from the meetings of the Executive Committee, and correspondence relating to those meetings, include information on the Committee’s fundraising campaign, publications, and other activities. Reports and memoranda to Committee members provide details on the organization’s lobbying activities on behalf of the Marshall Plan.

Financial records make up much of the collection. These records include: reports on the receipts and disbursements of the Committee; checkbooks; tax exemption certificates providing information about Committee employees; bank statements; proposed budgets; lists of contributors; income tax forms; and other financial statements.

Correspondence in the collection concerns such subjects as the organization and naming of the Committee, its fundraising activities, and its dissolution. Included are circular letters in support of the Marshall Plan, and telegrams to Committee members discussing upcoming meetings and Committee policy.

The collection also contains newsletters, pamphlets, and press releases prepared by the Committee in support of the Marshall Plan; a copy of the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948; statements by Dean Acheson and George C. Marshall; a list of the members of the Committee; and newspaper clippings relating to the Marshall Plan.

The Truman Library has the papers of Dean Acheson and Paul Hoffman, both of whom were members of the Committee for the Marshall Plan.