14 - Reform

Summary

Hoover’s famine relief mission had helped to stave off starvation for millions in Europe and Asia, but Germany posed a special problem. The world food crisis hit Germany especially hard, not simply because the war’s destruction had shattered its ability to produce and transport food to cities. Germany’s situation was compounded by JCS 1067, the directive governing American occupation. Because of Morgenthau’s insistence, the directive prevented American occupiers from revitalizing German industry, which greatly exacerbated already grim conditions. Caloric intake plummeted from an average of 2,445 calories per day to a paltry 860. It was becoming painfully apparent to American policy makers that if something did not change soon, the death toll would be unconscionable. This chapter probes the ways in which Americans came to undo the harshest aspects of German occupation policy and lay the groundwork for the Marshall Plan.