The Intermediary is the Message: US Public Diplomacy and the Marshall Plan Productivity Drive in the Netherlands, 1948–52

Abstract

This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) in the Netherlands during the Marshall Plan era. It shows that the impact of the ECA’s public diplomacy was shaped by its negotiations with local partners. The argument focuses on the operational level of US information campaigns, which sought to mobilize specific Dutch social groups behind a model of increased productivity and economic growth. By examining the interaction between the US country mission of the ECA and Dutch bureaucrats, managers, and labor leaders, the article demonstrates how the impact of public diplomacy was determined by a complex and at times contentious process of cooperation. While the Dutch readily accepted the US as a model of technological progress, local elites also managed to contain the threat that American propaganda posed to national recovery policies.