Toward the end of World War II in Europe, the US government pondered a plan to not only demilitarize but also disintegrate and deindustrialize postwar Germany. Named after its main proponent, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, the Morgenthau Plan proceeded from the insane assumption that “it is a fallacy that Europe needs a strong industrial Germany.” If it had been implemented, the remains of defeated Germany would have been deliberately turned into a post-industrial wasteland.
But then the Cold War happened, everyone, East and West, wanted their Germans making modern things in factories – and well-armed, too – again, and so it was Marshall Plan in and Morgenthau Plan out. Lucky Germans.
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