The Marshall Plan in Turkey: a critical evaluation of United States' interests in the plan and its effects on the republic

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to draw general implementation process of the Marshall Aid in Turkey and show the reasons for and the results of the Marshall Plan related to its implementation policy. What the United States demand from the Marshall Plan and from it’s highway policy and how it affected Turkey’s economic and social development process gave the direction to the study. In this context, the paper analyses the position of the United States in the period, the theoretical support of the Marshall Plan, modernization theory, the first aid package of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan implementation in several sectors, the highway construction policy throughout the Plan, and it’s outlook on the social sphere. The research follows three turning points in the general Marshall Plan process and in its Turkey implementation from focusing on the agricultural development to supporting the defense sector and to making the private sector flourish. Following these transformations, the paper investigates the actors that carried out this project to obtain several benefits for them instead to improve countries as is presented in modernization literature. Sources for the study include Assembly minutes, reports, the national and US archives of this period, newspapers, magazines, and secondary sources. This paper underlines the fact that the Marshall Plan did not convert the whole country into an American satellite without any decision-making process of internal actors; it did not devastate the country instead many benefits were provided in various spheres-; or, it was not a compulsory process but the result of mutual negotiations. This thesis researches thoroughly the immediate benefits of the United States from the projection of such a Plan leaving the internal politics aside.