George C. Marshall

Harvard University, June 5, 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall used Harvard's commencement day to propose what became the Marshall Plan, speaking to a crowd of 15,000 in Harvard Yard. It is dry and almost free of flourish, which is exactly the lesson: a plain statement of a problem and a willingness to act can change more than any rousing line. Its most famous sentence, that American policy was aimed "not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos," still works as a test for any big decision. Listen to it as proof that a graduation stage can carry real news.