With a deep conviction that this study will be useful to those who would better understand contemporary foreign policy, "The Legislative Origins of the Marshall Plan" is written with the following purposes: (1) to discover the origin and motives of the Marshall plan, (2) to discover the effect of the world-wide tours made by Congressmen in 1947 upon the legislative processes in the Marshall plan, (3) to compare and evaluate the respective contributions of the two houses of Congress to the Marshall plan, (4) to ascertain whether the Marshall plan is an economic, political, or humanitarian instrument, and (5) to evaluate the domestic effects, both governmental and economic, and to project them into the future.