In 1945, America won the war by the Allies’ side. At the end of the war, America became a bigger power after its victory, unlike Europe that has been completely destroyed by the war and has lost its power on the world. The US did not suffer of the war as much as Europe did, and they still had a good economy. Europe was demolished and laid in ruins, its economics devastated. More than that, the civils also suffered of the post-war because million of them faced famine. So, to clear away the damages in Europe as quickly as possible and to begin an economic reconstruction, an economic plan, called The Marshall Plan was implanted in 1947 by the American secretary of State, George Marshall. The United States gave over 12 billion dollars to divide among the participant states, France received 2,428 billion dollars. A larger amount of money was given to the biggest industrial powers because they thought it would be necessary for them to recover as fast as possible for general European revival. With the Marshall Plan, America went from an isolationist policy to a foreign policy to manage communist containment in Europe and to avoid the spread of communism  all over the continent, as well as to prevent the domino theory.

                                                                                                      The repartition of the Marshall Plan between the different European countires.

But the Marshall Plan was also a way for America to become richer because to payback their loans, European countries had to consume American products, and they bought   for more than 16 billions dollars of products to America in the following 35 years.

The Marshall Plan laid to the foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in 1949, by the United States and 11 other Western nations. Once again, the Western nations created an alliance because they feared a further communist expansion. This show a desire from Western nations to be united against communism because the treaty says that an armed attack against one or more of NATO’s member is an attack against them all. But after some disagreement with the U.S, France withdrawn in 1965.

Right after World War II, in 1947 the world entered in the Cold war with a political opposition of two main powers that wanted to control the world. In one hand we have the USSR whose goal is to spread communism and on the other one, we have the United States that preach for freedom, and democracy. At the time, in France, communism was really present and it became urgent for democratic states to prevent the arrival of a totalitarian regime in the country. Eastern European countries were part of the Soviet bloc and Western European countries were part of the Western bloc.    

During this era, France was under the American influence and meanwhile, recovered economically thanks to the Marshall Plan, with the “Glorious Thirty” that has been a time period of economic prosperity for France. Its GDP was up to 5.1 between 1950 and 1970, instead of 4.9 in other Western European countries, due to the raise of its industrial productivity. In the 60’s, France moves on to a tertiary economy with the development of services in big cities that created a lot of jobs. It led to the increase of the living standard with a raise of the middle class but also to the arrival of executives, a new socio-professional class who helped in the Americanization process. Because of the population enrichment, France followed the American model and entered in a consumption society.

However during this economical prosperity, France and America faced a political opposition about the involvement of the American troops in the Vietnam war (1964-1973). North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam. The U.S. were fighting by the South Vietnamese’ side (the Vietnamese Republic) and viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of a wider containment policy, with the aim of stopping the spread of communism. But France and some American people were opposed to the American involvement in this war because the American efforts to end the war became too violent.

Finally we can say that the historical context from 1945 to 1970 has been complicated between France and America. After the war, America and France were still allies and maintained good relationships. The United States have been really helpful with the Marshall Plan that is the cause of the French economic rebirth and prosperity and led to the increase of international trade between America and Europe, and to a consumption society with the spread of American products and new technologies in France. During the Cold war they both fought against communism with the same wish to preserve democracy, people individual liberties and States’ sovereignty. But in spite of this cohesion, they had some discord, especially about the Vietnam war.