e precise impact of the Marshall Plan on Western Europe, but these differing opinions do not detract from the fact that the Marshall Plan has been recognized as a great humanitarian effort. Secretary of State Marshall became the only general ever to receive a Nobel Prize for peace. The Marshall Plan also institutionalized and legitimized the concept of U.S. foreign aid programs, which have become a integral part of U.S. foreign policy.
             The Marshall Plan, the ambitious aid initiative launched by the United States in 1947, removed all of these obstacles simultaneously. By providing $13 billion of U.S. government grants over a period of four years, it relaxed the balance-of-payments constraint on European growth. $13 billion may have been only two-thirds of the payments deficits forecast by the participating countries at their July 1947 meeting in Paris, but those forecasts were inflated to maximize negotiating leverage. In fact, U.S. aid substantially filled the gap. Europe's trade deficit was $11.5 billion from 1948 through 1950, a period over which U.S. grants were $10 billion. The Marshall Plan thus unraveled the gordian knot of having to first export in order to import but being unable to import with first exporting. Europe's strategy of investment-led growth was sustained.
             In addition, the Marshall Plan provided powerful incentives to embrace the market. Countries accepting Marshall aid
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