A Pastoral State: The Morgenthau Plan and the Debate Over Germany's Postwar Future
Open Access
- Author:
- Labecki, Nicholas
- Area of Honors:
- History
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Michael James Milligan, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Cathleen Denise Cahill, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- History
Second World War
World War II
Morgenthau Plan
Henry Morgenthau Jr.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
Special Relationship
Nazi Germany
Second Quebec Conference
Postwar - Abstract:
- This thesis examines the Morgenthau Plan, proposed—and conditionally agreed upon by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in mid-September 1944 at the Second Quebec Conference held in Quebec City, Canada. The brainchild of Henry Morgenthau Jr., Secretary of the Treasury to President Roosevelt, the Plan called for the full deindustrialization of Germany following the Allied victory in the Second World War as well as the partition of the country into separate North and South German states. Morgenthau’s Plan represented a great departure from the general consensus within the Roosevelt administration that favored rebuilding Germany after the war, believing it to be a vital part of the European economy and necessary to reconstruct the continent as a whole. The British government had likewise come to favor a moderately strong Germany in the postwar period. Nonetheless, in the leadup to the Second Quebec Conference, Morgenthau convinced Roosevelt to support German deindustrialization. After reviewing the postwar planning process for both the American and British governments, this thesis examines the reasons why Winston Churchill felt compelled to accept the Morgenthau Plan at Quebec, examining closely the personalities involved at the Second Quebec Conference, British desires to extend the Lend-Lease program, the threat of Soviet postwar expansion, and the state of the Anglo-American Special Relationship by the late summer of 1944. This thesis further attempts to evaluate how the Morgenthau Plan serves as a broader illustration of the direction of Anglo-American relations following the conclusion of the Second World War.