Economic Cooperation Administration

One of a number of posters created by the Economic Cooperation Administration to promote the Marshall Plan in Europe.

The Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) was a United States government agency set up in 1948 to administer the Marshall Plan. It reported to both the State Department and the Department of Commerce. The agency's head was Paul Hoffman, a former head of Studebaker. Much of the rest of the organization was also headed by major business figures. A key administrator was Arthur Kimball. The ECA had an office in the capital of each of the sixteen countries participating in the Marshall Plan. In theory the ECA served as joint administrator of the Marshall Plan development projects in each European nation. In practice, local officials knew far more about what was needed than ECA representatives, who developed a management strategy of listening to local officials and allowing them to set priorities for reconstruction assistance.^[1]

It was succeeded by the United States Agency for International Development.

External links

• Records of U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies in the National Archives
• Documents authored or sponsored by ECA available from the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse (USAID/DEC)
• Albert H. Huntington Jr. (ECA Staff Member), Collection of Documents Related to Foreign Aid, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

References