Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA)
- Date of Founding
- Date of Abolition
- Location
Set-up as a businesslike organization headed by former car salesman Paul G. Hoffman, the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the European Recovery Program (ERP). It was created following the singing of the Economic Cooperation Act in April 1948.
Besides a headquarter in Washington, the ECA had a field office in Paris, headed by Averell Harriman, which was called the Office of the Special Representative (OSR). The OSR liaised with the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). Furthermore, ECA created a country mission of each participating country, which was to keep track of the different national reconstruction programs that were funded with Marshall Aid.
The job for ECA in Washington, as Hoffman had once put it, was to actually make a four-year program out of the Marshall Plan. This meant that Hoffman had to go back to Congress and give testimonies on the need to extend the Marshall Plan with another years. In order to be successful in doing so, it was necessary to present the fruits of European economic cooperation to the American lawmakers. In order to encourage the Europeans to intensify their cooperation, and to gather all the information he could, he regularly went over to European in order to speak with the OEECs heads of delegation.
In 1951, the ECA was replaced by the Mutual Security Agency (MSA), when foreign assistance to Europe became of a more military nature.